Debate on Anti-Semitism Lacks Substance
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SOCIETY: ANTI-SEMITISM Debate on anti-Semitism lacks substance Long-term media analysis of coverage on anti-Semitism, Israel and religious communities 1999-2003 s there another topic that national media in Germany treat quite as Short-term sensationalism… I carelessly as real or purported anti- Presence of the topic anti-Semitism 01/02-11/03 Semitism? After ten years of continuous 100 media analysis, and against the backdrop number of stories of the debate on the speech by CDU par- liamentarian Hohmann, the observer is 80 hard pressed to see anything reassuring in media reporting. 60 Whether in the ARD or ZDF, BILD or SÜD- 40 DEUTSCHE ZEITUNG, SPIEGEL or STERN, journalists continue to exploit and sen- 20 sationalize their coverage on the historic responsibilities of Germans, on religious 0 communities in general and the Jewish 1234567891011121234567891011 community and Israel, in particular. Cli- 2002 2003 chés seem to play a far more important Source: MEDIA TENOR Basis: 328 stories abaut anti-Semitism; role in news selection and evaluation than 01/01/2002 - 11/15/2003 in 21 media a journalistic predilection for research, reporting the news and putting events into a clear context. The victims are once …leads at best to saturation again the very same people for whom the Assessment of selected religious communities 01-11/03 media hype was purportedly intended: Shares of negative and positive coverage the Jewish religious community. Catholic church negative Anti-Semitism as a pretext positive The above graph shows how shallow Protestant curch this debate really is: Journalists who paid such great attention to the topic in Jewish community May/June 2002 and in November 2003 should also put up with the question why they basically ignored it for the entire Muslim community time in between? Jewish graveyards are desecrated every week. Short-term other rel. community sensationalist reporting does not increase public awareness, so much as tax audi- 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% ence interest. The middle graph on this Source: MEDIA TENOR Basis: 4,048 reports about religious communities; page points to the consequences: On bal- 01/01 - 11/15/2003 in 19 media ance, the Jewish community is portrayed even more negatively than the two main Christian churches. Others, such as the Latent anti-Semitism representatives of Islam, are mainly pre- DFG-project: ”Political opinions” 1994/1998 sented as cells for terrorist activities in 60% the German opinion forming media. But DFG opinion poll East Germany: this cannot really be a consolation for "Jews are special and don`t fit to us Germans." Paul Spiegel, Head of the Jewish Council in Germany. Every opinion poll since the 55% end of World War II proves that the share of people holding latent anti-Semitic opinions has been between 16% and 50% of the German population, depending 50% on how such anti-Semitic opinions are defined. This is determined, for example, by whether an statement such as ”Jews 45% are different and do not belong to us”, 09/1994 09/1998 11/1998 which was shared by 50% of adolescents in East Germany in 1998, would be con- Source: DFG project “political views“ Basis: 1994/1998 916/1,060/1,093 participants 40 MEDIA TENOR Quarterly Journal No. 4/2003 0403_4043f.indd 1 11.12.2003, 14:33:57 SOCIETY: ANTI-SEMITISM sidered anti-Semitic or not. But whether Questionable news value judgement it is 16% or 50%: The opposite graph Media presence Jewish community: Topics 01-11/03 demonstrates how low the media’s inter- est in real information is. When in 2003, board members the content structure of coverage on the investigations Jewish community was dominated by anti-Semitism topics like court cases, criminal acts against Jews and drug criminality, it is crime not surprising that Germans are not par- position w. org. ticularly open towards representatives drugs of the Jewish community. Of course, political statements negative it would not be reasonable to down- no clear rating play coverage of Michel Friedman, the public appearance i.g. positive former vice president of the German rel. to political prot. Jewish Council who was incriminated in statements on others number of reports scandals around drug abuse and human 0 20406080100 trafficking. But if, after eleven months of coverage on the Jewish community, Source: MEDIA TENOR Basis: 804 reports about Jewish communities; 01/01 - 11/15/2003 in 19 media the balance turns out to be an equation Friedman = Jewish community, one can ask the responsible editors to point Mainly interested in scandals out the difference between their news Coverage of Jewish community by media 01-11/03 selection and the type of blatant anti- Semitism they blame others for. WELT Television especially one-sided The graphs on this page point out how FR selected editorial staffs did and did FAZ not try to paint a diverse image of the Jewish community. Aside from the ARD SÜDDEUTSCHE TAGESTHEMEN, television journalists primarily focused on scandals. More ARD TAGESTHEMEN often than not, time is too short to really ARD TAGESSCHAU explain the underlying issues and search for the causes of the transgression in RTL AKTUELL question – after all significant air-time ZEIT must be left for the long-standing Ger- man pop-celebrity Dieter Bohlen or ZDF HEUTE Formula 1 races. STERN How long will it take until network chiefs and chief editors realize that ZDF HEUTE JOURNAL providing half of the information often turns out to be more misleading than SAT 1 18.30 no information at all? Even the news PROSIEBEN magazine SPIEGEL does not fare much better, although it is always so proud FOCUS of leaving enough room for giving the WAMS whole picture. The few news stories of the year 2003 hardly allow their readers SPIEGEL to appraise the value of the Jewish com- negative munity. How can one expect that people BAMS no clear rating discard anti-Semitic attitudes, when the positive FAS purported news magazine only restates number of reports the old, worn-out clichés? RHEIN. MERKUR 0 30 60 90 120 150 Reduced to money The top graph at page 42 shows that, in Source: MEDIA TENOR Basis: 804 reports about Jewish communities; the past few years, the German opinion 01/01 - 11/15/2003 in 19 media MEDIA TENOR Quarterly Journal No. 4/2003 41 0403_4043f.indd 2 11.12.2003, 14:34:04 SOCIETY: ANTI-SEMITISM forming media have made their own contribution to reinforcing blatant preju- Duped by a lawyer dices. Several years ago, in the context Coverage of Holocaust compensation 11-12/98 of compensation for Jewish forced labor- ers during the Third Reich, there was a financ. compensation other reaction chance to educate the audience with the setupoffund hist. research help of facts. other compensation But once again, journalists were outwit- negation of blame setup of hist. commission ted by a lawyer. Portraying it as an issue general statement of money, a complex story was reduced investigation of claims PR to its financial side. Still, two questions rejection of claims remained unanswered: confession of blame invest. of robbed property other information referral to comp. paid 1. How could it be that, after the Ger- impugnment of claim man government had paid 104 bil- setup of memorial Anzahl der destruction of documents Aussagen lion marks, in 1996 there were still public apology individuals who had not received a 0 100 200 300 400 single penny in compensation? Quelle: MEDIEN TENOR Basis: all statements focusing on claims of Holocaust victims; 11/01 - 12/31/1998 in 27 media 2. What was the economic ‘advantage’ that companies during the Third Reich had from replacing employ- Media pressure made companies move ees drafted into the army by forced Coverage, Participation in the foundation initiative 06-10/00 labor? Share of the topic "Nazi history" in accession to the 1% overall coverage about companies foundation initiative 600 Both issues offered more than enough 500 opportunities for asking many penetrat- 0,8% ing questions of the people involved. Not 400 only in order to clarify the outstanding 0,6% claims for compensation, but also to 300 discuss the supposedly apolitical role 0,4% of economic activity. However, this 200 would not only have required journal- 0,2% ists beyond the cultural desks to give up 100 well-kept prejudices on companies, but it would also have pushed managers to 0% 0 learn that greed is not always good. 678910 2000 But the opportunities were lost and Source: MEDIA TENOR Basis: all statements focusing on NS history of companies; it became obvious that the one-sided 06/01 - 10/31/2000 in 27 media approach of the media had an effect: The share of those who were prepared to identify with clearly anti-Semitic Scarce and one-sided portrayal statements grew to unprecedented levels. Media presence of the Jewish community 01-11/03 Most alarming is that more than half of 200 the adolescents interviewed gave the negative number of reports same answers as those over 60. The no clear rating 150 polling results were also a proof that it positive is wrong to always point the finger at the residual effects of old propaganda. After all, 60 years after the Holocaust the 100 specter of anti-Semitism also emerges among age groups who have likely never 50 had much contact with representatives from the Jewish religious community. On the other side, the intensity of cover- 0 age showed that this forced companies 1234567891011 to take action and join the compensation 2003 fund. Source: MEDIA TENOR Basis: 804 reports about Jewish communities; 01/01 - 11/15/2003 in 19 media 42 MEDIA TENOR Quarterly Journal No.