A few months ago, a statistical report came out and talked over the various ways that Germans get their daily dose of 'news', and the number one source was the 8 PM 15-minute segment on ARD. There are several aspects to the news piece, and I'll offer these observations:
1. The news piece originates out of Hamburg nightly (seven nights a week). It generally rotates among six to eight 'readers' (not anchors or journalists). These folks are hired to simply walk in....pick up the text and practice for maybe an hour, then read it over the air. They are hired mostly for their diction and speed of speaking. Whoever does it....will usually come back at 9:45 PM and repeat once again....teaming up with an actual journalist.
2. If you wanted the long in-depth piece to explain the entire story....the 8 PM piece is 'crap'. But if you just want the simple story without a lot of details....it probably fits perfect.
3. It'll end with approximately 90-to-120 seconds of sports, and then roughly 60 seconds of national weather.
4. There is some minor competition between the ARD news crowd (out of Hamburg) and the ZDF news crowd (out of Mainz). If you were looking for journalists who twist their head or make statements to draw you to their conclusions....the ZDF crowd come out ahead. Why finance two entire news groups, for public TV? No one ever seems to ask this question.
5. The commentary-segment? Among the junior networks (SWR, BR, HR, etc).....there's a meeting each day around noon where these sub-players can suggest some commentary ought to occur on the 8 PM or 9:45 PM news segment.....to have a personal say over some event or some political 'game'. ONLY journalists from the public TV empire are allowed to have this say....a non-journalist would never be allowed to have public commentary.
6. Does the 8 PM ARD piece really cover all German news? No. It's a blend....international, Europe, etc. I would suggest (on average), about 60-percent has something to do with German events, German politics, German crime, etc. There have been events (like the Koln New Year's Eve riot episode of 2015) that they avoided for several days, and were finally forced into telling the story. If you wanted to have a strong dose of everything that happened in Germany for the previous 24 hours.....this 8 PM ARD news segment would be a lousy choice.
7. Just because some Germans watches the 8 PM segment....doesn't make them an authority on anything, or geography, or politics. In fact, if you tested most Germans who watch the 15-minute piece.....say four days later....there's literally nothing that they really remember from the segment. So it's almost like disposable news that you take in....consume, and maybe at best....remember for 24 hours.
8. The real purpose of the 9:45 PM news? Mostly to offer a more in-depth segment and extra details. Live interviews are more likely for the later piece....conducted by the journalist, NOT the reader.
9. The statistics and polling conducted by the ARD crowd? It's decent and somewhat reliable. When they project out a week ahead of time over election results....it's usually within one to two points of the final result.
10. Is the news better via the public folks at ARD, or via commercial news networks? I won't say it's better.....just developed and probably more neutral (the commercial news).
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