Innovation in journalism is much more than technology

Innovation is a fashionable term. Its inflationary use makes it difficult to analyse innovative journalistic practice. Nevertheless, it makes sense: we have been experiencing a surge of actual innovations in journalism for at least ten years. These are products or processes that are new and bring an improvement. But what has been improved in the process at all? What factors favour or inhibit innovation? The international research project JoIn-DemoS (Journalism Innovation in Democratic Societies) has been dealing with these questions for three years. On the German side: a team of journalists from the Catholic University of Eichstätt led by Prof. Dr. Klaus Meier. In 100 case studies, innovative journalism in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain and the United Kingdom were examined. One finding: the debate about innovations in journalism has so far (too) often been reduced to technological developments. The research team focuses on innovations that help to distinguish journalism from other forms of the digital media world and strengthen its democratic mission. Examples: Depth and diversity instead of further acceleration of news (e.g. storytelling, factchecking, diversity); original research instead of foaming available information (e.g. investigative networks, data journalism); funding models with a stronger relationship to the audience instead of clickbait (e.g. membership models, audience engagement).