The media trust survey compiled by Reuters is, on the surface, very optimistic for Germany's public and mainstream media. German public media, especially ARD and its flagship program Tagesschau, enjoy the trust of as many as 65% of respondents. That is an impressive result, given the scale of manipulation and the concealment of key information, such as the nationality of the perpetrators of crimes. Only 19% of Germans regard these media as susceptible to deception. For the majority, the authority of a state institution still outweighs a critical assessment of the facts.
In recent years ARD has been criticized for the selective reporting of events, especially those connected with immigration and crime. One example is the case of the mass sexual assaults and rapes in Cologne on New Year's Eve 2015, when the public media initially played down the scale of the problem, which triggered a wave of outrage in society. Even so, trust in ARD remains high, which may result from a deeply rooted conviction about the mission of public media in Germany.
The situation looks entirely different in the commercial media. The tabloid Bild, even though only 24% of Germans trust it, has a disproportionately large influence on everyday discourse. It is Bild, with its blaring headlines, that often sets the framework of the debate and is the outlet Germans reach for most often. The newspaper is known for its sensational style, its simplifications and its use of language in a form comprehensible even to people with an incomplete command of German. Yet its influence on public opinion cannot be overstated, because it is Bild that often gives prominence to matters the mainstream media simply pass over.
Particularly worrying is the situation in the local media, which according to the surveys enjoy the trust of 64% of respondents. In practice they are deeply entangled in local dependencies. In the assessment of Aleksandra Fedorska, who also publishes in the German press, there is a peculiar triangle of dependency between the administration, local employers and newsrooms.
Journalists, often freelancers, are exceptionally vulnerable to pressure from company bosses or politicians. Local elites move seamlessly from posts in the media into local politics or into business structures based in the same region.
In small towns the local newspaper is often the only source of information, which gives it enormous power. Yet this power is mostly used to build a positive image of the region rather than to genuinely scrutinize the local elites. Germans' high trust in their media, despite their evident errors and manipulations, may stem from a strong need for stability and an excessive faith in institutions. As a result, the media become an instrument for cementing the status quo and drastically limit their watchdog function.
