Wirtschaftsberichterstattung im Rundfunk der Schweiz: eine inhaltsanalytische Untersuchung zu Unterschieden zwischen den Sprachregionen

The study analyzes to which extent economic broadcasting coverage differs between the three main language regions – the German-, French- and Italianspeaking parts of Switzerland. According to the obligations of Public Service, one main function which should be fulfilled by public broadcasting is the integration of the different language regions. Therefore, we conducted a content analysis of economic news in main public and private TV and radio news broad-casts in the three language regions. We evaluated the quantity of economic news, but also the relevance of the covered events and comprehensibility of the economic news. Findings indicate that in all three language regions, about 20 percent of the news broadcasts are economic news. Topics concerning the meso level, companies and industries, are by far most often covered in all three languages. This provides the possibility of interpersonal conversation about these subjects and thus helps integration. Nevertheless, events which happen on a regional level in the other language regions are covered very infrequently.