Bredowcast

To find out how science journalists do their job, Irene Broer became one herself. Applying the research method ethnography, she spent several weeks amidst a team of science journalists. In this BredowCast episode, she explains what this endeavour entailed and why ethnography is a useful method to study journalism. For a total of four weeks, Irene Broer became part of the editorial team at the Science Media Center Germany in Cologne – a news agency specialized in scientific topics. During that time, she looked over the editors’ shoulders and watched their every movetrying to find out exactly how they filter information, select their topics and decide what is publish-worthy. This “editorial ethnography” was part of Irene’s PhD project which investigates the inner workings of science journalism in Germany. Ethnographic methods are ideal to study journalism behind the scenes, says Irene. “What you see in newspapers does not really give you an idea of what happens beforehand. What I find interesting are the cho