Friday, 22 August, 2008,
Axel-Springer-Str. 65, Berlin
11:00 – 12:30 a.m.

Tanit Koch, head of Kai Diekmann’s office, BILD

By Angela Unkrüer

The first day of the workshop was devoted to the themes of “tabloid journalism” as well as the difficult relationship between the Internet and print-media. In order to obtain an impression of what German tabloid journalism is all about, the participants visited the Axel-Springer publishing house in Berlin. The editorial office of the BILD newspaper – maybe the most controversial but also most popular daily in Germany – was visited.

The security controls at the entrance of Axel-Springer are accordingly strict and rigorous. And up we went to the ninth floor of the towering building, where since April 2008, the editorial office of the BILD newspaper is located, which until then, was located in Hamburg. We are entering a room, where countless flat-screen TVs are hanging from the ceiling, resembling a scene from a command centre of a futuristic spaceship. Mr Kai Diekmann, the editor-in-chief of the BILD group has just started the meeting, in which the editors of the newspaper are discussing the headlines and photos of the current edition. In addition to this, an external journalist contributes via telephone and provides a review and critique of the preceding day’s paper. It was to the general astonishment of all of us that literally anyone can offer one’s service of providing a critique in such a manner. Although most of the participants of the Youth Media Workshop do not speak or understand German, they must have surely gained a strong figurative impression of the newspaper with the greatest circulation in Europe.

After that, Ms Tanit Koch, the head of Mr Diekmann’s office, gave the young journalists a tour through the editorial office, making them familiar with the basic data of BILD, answering questions and explaining – surprisingly, with references to critical observations of the newspaper’s work – any queries that remained. Apart from that, Ms Koch highlighted some of the trends that will, in her view, be of immense importance for the future of journalism. She stresses in particular the role of the so-called “reader reporters”, readers, who – by definition – report on news by using text messages or email and contribute a great deal of photographic material to the editors. After the editors’ meeting is closed, various photos – amongst which are those taken by both professional and reader photographers – are laid out on a table and provide for the material of tomorrow’s edition. Snapshots of VIPs and a picture of a victim of a motor-cycle crash lie next to each other. In the light of such photos, the participants think about the responsibility, ethics and moral of tabloid journalism.