Brilliant blog demonstrating how the #Relotius #SpiegelGate scandal has to do with the incentive for journalists to come up with entertaining sensational 'stories' rather than boring accounts of complexity. And Spiegel is pretty sensationalist
What Spiegel defines as 'criminal conduct' in its response, is actually the method that a novel- or songwriter would use. If the bottom line is to publish a 'nice story' that's how you best get one.
spiegel.de/international/…
spiegel.de/international/…
As the reporter says, he acted as he was under pressure to come up with new successful articles - suggesting that his behaviour was systematically rewarded (until he got caught)
spiegel.de/kultur/gesells…
spiegel.de/kultur/gesells…
Also much of this reporter's work was on foreign countries. And this is not by chance for two reasons. One explained here below
...the other is that readers are much more willing to accept if you turn *foreign* people/places into caricatures (e.g. stupid, gun-obsessed Americans, lazy/devious southern Europeans) - it is a rather subtle way to boost a national superiority complex, which many people enjoy
you get a lot more pushback when you write in these terms about people from your own country
So I find the #Relotius #Spiegelgate case symptomatic of a certain kind of subtly nationalist, sensationalist journalism - of which Spiegel for me is almost the archetype /ends.
