Deutsche Welle’s Mission Statement has been altered
Is this Good or Bad?
I have written this article in the hope that it will inspire you to hold the media to the highest standards and question more. To prevent confusion please note that I, @DieWelle, have absolutely nothing to do with Deutsche Welle which also holds the same acronym DW.
I would like to inform you about something that I came across when I was browsing Deutsche Welle’s Profile page on their website.
I was reading their mission statement and noticed that it has been changed. Some things may seem reasonable to give an appearance of impartiality, but they may also have an unintended double meaning. I would like to question and find out whether this may be true.
I don't know yet whether the changes are good or bad, but I thought that this should be examined as this could be telling us an alarming situation that is happening in Germany.
What are the changes?
Most recent version of mission statement:
Our Mission: "Deutsche Welle is Germany’s international broadcaster. We convey a comprehensive image of Germany, report events and developments, incorporate German and other perspectives in a journalistically independent manner. By doing so we promote understanding between cultures and peoples. We simultaneously also provide access to the German language. " reference: http://www.dw.com/en/about-dw/profile/s-30688
Previous version of mission statement:
Mission: "DW conveys Germany as a nation rooted in European culture and as a liberal, democratic state based on the rule of law. DW is known for its in-depth, reliable news and information and promotes exchange and understanding between the world’s cultures and people. Deutsche Welle also provides access to the German language." reference: https://web.archive.org/web/20170101123205/http://www.dw.com/en/about-dw/profile/s-30688#nomobile
My Opinion and Analysis
I believe that "conveys Germany as a nation rooted in European culture and as a liberal, democratic state based on the rule of law" can be construed as presenting a country in a certain way, no matter whether it is the truth or not, which is also the definition of propaganda.
So the change to something else may have been made to improve DW’s public image as its previous mission statement projected to the reader clearly that its mission was to portray Germany in a positive way.
In the new statement, instead of conveying Germany “as a nation rooted...” it states “We convey a comprehensive image of Germany”.
Conveying a “comprehensive” image means that DW is now stating they are ‘including or dealing with all or nearly all elements or aspects of something’ according to Oxford Dictionary of English. This may be a positive sign that they are trying to be impartial.
The next section of the mission statement that has been removed is what alarmed me most. “DW is known for its in-depth, reliable news and information and promotes exchange and understanding between the world’s cultures and people.”
From reading the changes, the following questions jump into my mind.
- Does DW no longer consider Germany a "Liberal Democracy", or one that is based on the "rule of law"? Or Is this a matter of letting the viewer judge for them selves more critically without DW’s conveying of this message?
- Does DW no longer hold it self to the self-claimed standard of “in-depth, reliable news and information and promotes exchange and understanding between the world’s cultures and people”?
- Has DW now joined other so called mainstream media which are known for reporting nonfactual information, lack of critical and independent investigative journalism?
There was a time that DW was a news organisation, which although clearly had a bias, it did also have a fairly decent reputation for its reporting. Has this now changed for the good or the worse?
Please let me know what you think in the comments bellow.
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