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Journalism …

3rd October, 2011 - Posted by Wolf Paul - No Comments

Among newspaper and radio headlines which do not actually match the content which they head up, two stand out during the past month.

The first is an article currently circulating in evangelical and ecumenical circles here in Austria whose title claims that the Pope, during a speech to Protestant dignitaries on the occasion of his visit to Germany, “criticized the free churches.” It is of course entirely possible that the Pope IS critical of the free churches, so am I in some areas, but in the speech concerned he did not really express such criticism. But I will deal with that, and with the evangelical reactions to the perceived criticism in a separate post.

Then this morning, ORF Radio’s morning new magazine, the “Morgenjournal”, introduced a story with the headline, “New rector of Graz University not in favor of tuition fees” and then proceeded to quote comments by the rector, Mrs Christa Neuper, in which she said that it was unhelpful that the education debate in Austria was frequently reduced to the subject of tuition payments, and that even the debate on university financing needs to be more comprehensive than just tuition payments. That does NOT amount to “not being in favor” of tuition payments, it is simply the recognition that they are not a cure-all or the sole solution.

This phenomeon (headlines that don’t match the content) makes me wonder whether these journalists are stupid and inept, or even dishonest, constructing headlines out of thin air hoping thereby to influence the way people understand the story.

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