Diversity in Österreichs Redaktionen: Bestandsaufnahme, Problemlage und Lösungsansätze

Abstract

The claim for diversity is now at the very centre of the discourse on the social relevance of journalism, also in Austria. In this article we examine diversity in Austrian newsrooms from the perspective of ethnicity. The empirical basis is provided by the 2018/19 overall survey of journalists in Austria and 501 representative CAT interviews conducted by Medienhaus Wien and the CMC Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences / University of Klagenfurt. The data analysis shows that journalists with a non-German-speaking migration background are strikingly underrepresented in Austrian newsrooms. Furthermore, we identify relevant differences in socio-demographic characteristics such as gender ratio, age, and education as well as in the role perception between journalists with a non-German-speaking migration background and their colleagues without a migration background. These results of the data analysis are contrasted, based on qualitative interviews with media managements and journalists, with the problem awareness in the professional discourse. This shows that the homogeneous composition of newsrooms is increasingly recognised as a deficiency, but that corresponding solution strategies are only in their beginnings.