The Media Landscape of Austria
Reporters without Borders' World Press Freedom Index ranks Austria 11th, making it one of the most free presses in the world. Today, though, Austria faces challenges with the rise of an increasingly hostile far-right movement which has launched attacks on the credibility of the press.
Major Outlets
Outlet |
Medium |
Owner |
History / Background |
Print / Online |
Funkemedien Gruppe |
Considered more populist, critics have blamed it for spreading xenophobia |
|
Print / Online |
Styria Medien AG |
Previously supported by the Austrian Chamber of Commerce until Styria Medien bought it in the 90s, has a “conservative-liberal” slant |
|
Print / Online |
Funkemedien Gruppe owns 49% |
Founded by US Forces in Austria after WWII, centre-left liberal coverage, third best-selling paper in Austria |
|
Print / Online |
Bronner Family and Oscar Bronner (Founder), Axel Springer until 1995, Standard Verlagsgesellschaft m.b.H |
has been categorized as left-leaning and liberal, it works in conjunction with the New York Times |
|
TV |
Austrian government |
Has its roots in independent broadcasting that took place during the Allied occupation post-WWII, was formerly the Austrian Broadcasting Entity GmbH |
Notable Journalists
|
Armin Wolf
Armin Wolf has been lauded as one of the toughest and most skilled political journalists in Europe, according to Politico. He appears nightly on the popular ORF 10 pm daily news program ZiB2, and often leads the program's six-minute live interview with country's top politicians. Most recently, he has been tough on the Freedom Party, but he gained international attention for his tough interview with Vladimir Putin. The interview lasted an hour and gained attention because Putin rarely speaks with western media. Wolf noted that it was certainly the most challenging interview he had ever done, because of Putin's position of power (the interview took place in the Kremlin), the pauses for translation, and because Putin has a knack for focusing on the interruptions in his interviews, which makes the interviewer begin to appear rude. Overall, Wolf received praise in western media for his interview with Putin and his refusal to be bossed around by the Russian president. Ben Segenreich
Ben Segenreich has worked in Tel Aviv since 1989 as a corespondent for German, Swiss, and Austrian news outlets, primarily covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He began working for ORF in 1990 at their bureau in Tel Aviv. With his wife, he authored a book called Fast Ganz Normal: Unser Leben in Israel (Almost entirely normal: our life in Israel), which combines humorous reflections on their everyday experiences with historical and political outlooks on the past and future of the country. |
Social Media Use
According to businessculture.org, 60% of Austrians who have internet access are active on some form of social media. In addition to common platforms like Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and WhatsApp, other social media networks have include Xing, StudiVZ, and meinVZ. The latter two have lost popularity and StudiVZ technically no longer is active (although the webpage still appears to work), but they had been intended as social media networking sites for students, and were based in Germany. XING, meanwhile, seems similar to LinkedIn, as it describes itself as "a social network for business professionals" and remains active, with "almost 10 million members (as of February 2016)."
As has been seen in much of the rest of the world, Facebook and Twitter have been used to organize protests and political action, especially among youths. Axel Maireder and Christian Schwarzenegger documented the use of social media in the 2009 "Unibrennt" student protests in Vienna. They argue that "the low-obligatory and low-binding nature, as well as the immediacy of connection to the movement, were elementary for its success in terms of drawing large groups of students and university staff into the protests and the large amount of public attention the movement ultimately received." These successes were achieved because of the immediate messages that could be communicated through loosely-formed communities on social media.
Daily News Statistics
*numbers are current as of October 1, 2018. Sourced from social bankers.com and verified on Twitter and Facebook*
As has been seen in much of the rest of the world, Facebook and Twitter have been used to organize protests and political action, especially among youths. Axel Maireder and Christian Schwarzenegger documented the use of social media in the 2009 "Unibrennt" student protests in Vienna. They argue that "the low-obligatory and low-binding nature, as well as the immediacy of connection to the movement, were elementary for its success in terms of drawing large groups of students and university staff into the protests and the large amount of public attention the movement ultimately received." These successes were achieved because of the immediate messages that could be communicated through loosely-formed communities on social media.
Daily News Statistics
*numbers are current as of October 1, 2018. Sourced from social bankers.com and verified on Twitter and Facebook*
Control of Information - Propaganda, Repression, and Corporate Influence
- Green Party Politician and Facebook Censorship
- Former Green Party leader Eva Glawischnig appealed to the European Court of Justice in early 2018 to rule on whether Facebook should be required to censor racial slurs that were posted about her for readers around the world. According to the EU Observer, Glawischnig had already won her 2016 case in Austrian courts, and Facebook had been required to remove the posts and all verbatim copies. Glawischnig then appealed, "claiming Facebook should also have to find and remove similar posts." The Austrian Supreme Court passed the matter on to the European Court of Justice because "EU law prohibits member states from imposing a general obligation on companies to filter information for illegal content."
- Freedom Party (far-right) News Blog
- Unzensuriert.at is a far-right news site that comments on news from other sources, with a large focus on Islam, terrorism, and migrants. It name means "uncensored," presumably as a criticism of the mainstream media. It calls itself an independent source but it was founded as a blog of a senior FPÖ — Freedom Party — member and is run by parliamentary staff. Headlines on the site have included provocative articles like “Vienna will not become Istanbul” and “10 year old Afghan rapes 10 year old Classmate on school trip."
- In 2017, Der Standard covered unzensuriert's plans to expand into Germany, noting that 40% of its web traffic was German. According to Der Standard, the blog was initially started in 2009 to support FPÖ politician Martin Graf. It receives around 2 million viewers a day, and all of its revenue is made from advertising. Its editors work on a mainly-volunteer basis. Der Standard also reports that the site has featured prominently in FPÖ party leader Heinz-Christian Strache's social media presences, as he had posted more than 230 related links since 2016 at the time of writing.
Fake News
- "Austrian Broadcaster sues far-right leader over fake news claim" -- February 2018
- The ORF and Armin Wolf, its lead anchor, announced plans to sue the deputy head of government Heinz-Christian Strache after he accused the agency of "fake news." Reuters notes that Strache, the head of the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) has long accused the ORF of being biased towards the left, but in February 2018 he posted a picture of Wolf on Facebook with the words "There is a place where lies become news. That place is ORF." Strache argued that because he had captioned the post“Satire!”, it was obviously a Mardi Gras prank. In response, both Wolf and ORF are seeking to sue Strache. There has not yet been a ruling, but Reuters reports that a court agreed that Wolf's case was "well founded." Additionally, ORF is intending to sue Facebook for not deleting the post, according to ORF Chief Alexander Wrabetz in an AP article about the matter.
Satire and Humor
Gerhard Haderer is an Austrian cartoonist who began creating political cartoons in 1985. His work appears in the Austrian Profil and German Stern, according to Cartooning for Peace. His religious satirical work, The Life of Jesus, caused a huge uproar throughout Europe when it was published in the early 2000s. The Bishop of Vienna asked that he apologize to Christians, and Greece banned his book and summoned him to appear in court with charges of blasphemy. Prominent writers, artists, and human rights activists protested on his behalf, and eventually Haderer won the lawsuit and the ban was lifted.
Some examples of his work are below:
Middle image: "Welcome beloved Syrians! Here in Austria it's sooo terrible, boo! Germany is much prettier! Or Sweden or England! Besides, here we have the gentlemen Mr. Strache and the Austrian Freedom Party. Have fun on your farther travels!"
Right image: "Are we expecting a visit?"
Some examples of his work are below:
Middle image: "Welcome beloved Syrians! Here in Austria it's sooo terrible, boo! Germany is much prettier! Or Sweden or England! Besides, here we have the gentlemen Mr. Strache and the Austrian Freedom Party. Have fun on your farther travels!"
Right image: "Are we expecting a visit?"
|
"America First, Austria Second"
This video was created by the ORF, also in response to the original video created by the Netherlands. In contrast to the Namibian video, which was made by a private company, I found it interesting that this response was produced by the government broadcasting corporation, as stated by the Wiener Zeitung. |
Additional Sources
J., Greta. "31 Brutally Honest Illustrations by Gerhard Haderer Show What's Wrong With Today's Society." Bored Panda.
Maireder, Axel and Christian Schwarzenegger. "A Movement of Connected Individuals: Social media in the Austrian student protests 2009." Information, Communication, and Society. Vol 15, no. 2. 2012.
Maireder, Axel and Christian Schwarzenegger. "A Movement of Connected Individuals: Social media in the Austrian student protests 2009." Information, Communication, and Society. Vol 15, no. 2. 2012.