Quality of Media Depictions of Mobility in Transition—An Experts’ Assessment of News Coverage in Germany

Abstract

This contribution investigates the quality of news media coverage on the transition of mobility and transport in Germany as judged by experts in journalism and mobility. Mass media serves a crucial function in reaching an informed political consensus about paths towards sustainable mobility. Political actors, experts, and the general public need to be correctly and comprehensively informed about relevant demands and options for transitioning mobility and transport systems. However, media are often accused of failing to serve their functions in the public interest. Coverage on scientific issues is frequently criticized, e.g., for being incomplete, inaccurate, or skewed negatively or towards elite and standard sources. No research, however, has been undertaken to analyze how well coverage of mobility in transition conforms to professional quality standards. We aim at this research gap using semi-structured interviews with experts in transport/mobility from academia and journalism. Experts’ quality expectations are unveiled, and insights are derived on how well mobility journalism meets them. We find that media are accused of several blind spots, seeming to downplay, ignore, or inaccurately report several relevant issues. Findings further show that reporting is slowly shifting from a focus on automobility towards a more diverse presentation of the transport system, while relevance and complexity of the transformation processes are not yet presented sufficiently comprehensibly to a heterogeneous public.