Abstract (eng)
The English title of this master´s thesis is “Information deliberately suppressed in Austrian journalism – a search for withheld facts, taboos and under-represented themes”. This master’s thesis deals with issues that were not made public by the Austrian media, thus establishing a link between taboos and journalism.
This paper aims to highlight recent issues deliberately suppressed by journalists working for the Austrian press, and gives some reasons for such action. I shall also explain how withheld information can be spotted in print journalism, as well as in radio and TV broadcasting. Moreover, current taboos and topics treated negligently will be investigated with the help of the literature and a survey.
A theoretical preliminary investigation serves to distinguish concealment from open expression, and to define its function. In-depth literature research and a qualitative empirical analysis based on semi-structured expert interviews show a number of reasons journalists have to withhold information. Therefore eight journalists from different print media enterprises and departments were consulted. Relevant theories of news selection are mentioned in this context, including News Values/Criteria, the Gatekeeper theory and the Laswell Formula.
The results of this empirical analysis provide (hitherto unknown) insights into current taboo topics, topics underrepresented in the media, and the reason for such deliberate negligence in Austrian print journalism. Thus, the reader is encouraged to become aware of selection processes and to keep a distance to the daily inundation with media publications – and non-publications.