Abstract
This is a book about innovations in journalism over the past decade or so in five countries – Austria, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. It is based on a funded research project – ‘Journalism Innovations in Democratic Societies: Index, Influence and Prerequisites in International Comparison’ – JoIn-DemoS, involving 24 communication scientists. The ambition of the project team is to identify and analyse ‘the most important innovations in journalism … and what factors promoted or deterred the introduction of innovations in media companies’ (p. 1), including the impact the relevant media systems play. It is grounded in normative democratic theories of journalism, which see journalism as ‘an existential condition for democratic societies’ (p. 1). A total of 100 case studies are examined in the five countries ‘in a system-analytical way – concluding with the lessons that can be learned from the macrolevel (policies) and the mesolevel (organizations)’ (p. 1). The authors define innovation as combining ‘the discovery of a problem or need – the development of an idea to provide a solution with a practical application to obtain successful results’ (p. 1). When studying innovations in journalism, the book explores the production, organisation, distribution, and commercialisation of news content. It is split into six parts. Part I, ‘Theoretical Framework’ and Part II, ‘Methodological Framework’ each consist of one chapter. Part III, ‘National Framework Conditions for Innovation in Journalism’, comprises five chapters on each of the countries taking part in the project. Part IV, ‘The Most Relevant Innovations in Journalism from a Comparative Perspective’, includes 18 chapters presenting the empirical results. Each chapter focuses on a journalistic innovation such as AI, data journalism, new digital storytelling, crowdfunding, podcasts, etc. Each innovation is analysed through exploring its aim, supportive and obstructive conditions, and societal impact as well as country-specific case studies. Part V, ‘Journalistic Innovations and Their Socio-Political Framework Conditions: A Five-Country Comparison’ consists of one chapter comparing the media systems of the countries in the sample. Part VI, ‘Conclusions and Recommendations’, comprises three chapters summarising the key lessons, opportunities and challenges, and theoretical contributions. All in all, this is a very coherent and clearly structured book, which will indeed be of interest to professionals, scholars and students of journalism, and media and communication scholars and students.