The specialized press in the journalistic food chain

On the occasion of the Association of the Danish Specialized Press’ 100th anniversary, the Danish Professor Anker Brink Lund has conducted a research report which proves that the organized part of the Danish specialized press delivers more than 43,000 news items a year to the journalistic food chain in Denmark. The lacking acknowledgement of the specialized press does not prevent the Danish news media from taking inspiration from the specialized press’ original production. As an example, the weekly health journal “Dagens Medicin” achieves 40 citations in other news channels in an average week.

Danish journalists steel

“The report shows a sincere problem of both press ethical and financial importance. Danish journalists both borrow and steal from each other’s stories. However, the traces are hidden so that the readers do not have a chance to understand the order in the journalistic food chain”, Professor Anker Brink Lund proves.

One of the report’s main conclusions is that the journalistic information processes are similar to an ecological system with hunters, collectors and exchange of animals. In that way it gets obvious how the different news media deal with each other’s raw material.

The specialized press lacks acknowledgement

“In a time with journalistic consistency where everybody borrows from each other, the specialized press and their websites ensure a constant flow of original stories. Nevertheless, since the Danish journalists borrow from each other without providing citations, the specialized press does not get acknowledged and thus has a lower rank. As en example, the Danish government has for several years cut down on the specialized press’ support for postage, which has had the result that more than 500 specialized journals have been forced to shut down”, Anker Brink Lund ends.