How Watching The NEWS in GERMANY is COMPLETELY Different Than in AMERICA 

What’s your main source for news?

Naaah you did not call “das Jugendwort” less important? Susanne Daubner announcing it is so iconic, it’s literally one of the reasons people even vote. 😂

The Jugendwort is incredibly important! Nobody says it… but just the fact that that lady is saying it every year is being celebrated by people all across Germany

no ads. That's the German trick. It's fucking refreshing not seeing ads every five minutes.

Maybe to demonstrate how big the institution of the Tagesschau is in Germany: In a small town there was a church, that rang its bells every day sharp at 8pm. The neighbors of the church complained to the local city council because the ringing of the bells disturbs watching the Tagesschau. The city council held this for pretty reasonable and had the ring time of the church move to 7.45pm. You gotta love Germany

The most shocking fact is how few people actually watch the news in the US. Germany is so much smaller but 10 times more people actually watching the news

It should be mentioned that ARD Tagesschau not only reports the news but also does the research globally, based on 28 studios all over the world, featuring one of the largest networks of correspondants / reporters.

I'm happy that I just have to watch one 20 minute newscast at 20:00h here in The Netherlands, and not a 24/7 screaming match

What I like about the presentation of news in German Television, as a German myself, is the emotional neutrality of the delivery. The spectators has to interpret the content of the news for themselves, without being influenced by the presentation too much. The scene with the guy whacking a table with a small axe is from a talkshow in the late 70's, not from a news broadcast.

The more "unimportant" news in the German news is a tradition. Susanne Daubner reads traditionally the "youth word of the year" and because of her unemotional pronounciation and her, not being the target group for fancy words like "sus", "goofy" etc. makes her a meme in the German RU-vid. German Creators use these short clips in their videos and Susanne Daubner absolutely lives for this. That's so charming ❤️

I did not know that prime time starting at 8:15 is a weird thing. It was always completely normal to me and I just never thought about it that much.

I‘ve lived in America for half a year - And even though I don’t have epilepsy, I thought I was going crazy with all those blinking lights, almost screaming news personalities, picture in picture, and headlines everywhere. Coming back to Germany and watching the news here was refreshing

What's also important to know is that the news network behind the tagesschau is incredibly big, spreading all their journalists and reporters all around the world to almost any country. It is also a prime source for many over news networks.

"you get the sense that the US is the center of the universe" How modest of them to call their national champions "world champions" instead of "masters of the universe" as would be their rightful place.

The 50+ generation, of which I'm part of, considers it rude to call someone on the phone during "Tagesschau". I've never answered a call myself while watching the News.

Another piece of trivia: The famous "gong" at the beginning is NOT a recording. The studio in Hamburg still uses a physical gong with a microphone pointed at it.

As a german, it always felt very weird seeing American News. US News feel very emotional and subjective, making me trust the news less. Tagesschau is objective and fits everything you need into 15 minutes. I personally find their way of presenting the news very comforting. After a long day you tune into Tagesschau, hear everything you need to know presented by a calm voice and right after that you can enjoy the best shows or movies of the evening.

I used to work for a TV graphics company that had many American customers. I was surprised by the insane amount of extra "information" on screen during the news: banners, tickers, Picture in Picture, flashing graphics, etc. The news looks more like a '90s internet website

Whenever i was in the US and tried to stay informed what is going on around the world or who won the elections in Germany I had to use the Internet..watching American TV gave me the impression there are no other countries existing

Older American here. Just to say that what you are describing in the US started in the 80s with cable tv, if I am not mistaken. Before that, we had newsmen such as Walter Cronkite, who covered the news objectively in 15 minutes.

German journalist here, thanks for the great video, you are spot on with it. Still, I´d like to add that apart from Tagesschau there are other, more local focussed news formats on the networks, before and after the 8 pm slot. Also, like in the US, we have 24/7 news channels like n-tv, Welt, phoenix and also Tagesschau24 ;) So, you have a lot of choice. I do agree that the big part Tagesschau still plays ist due to the style of presentation and focus on the big stories. Maybe having only 15 minutes helps with that ;)

I love the random Bernd das Brot appearence during the channelswitches.

I like the Tagesschau news format. Within 15 minutes, you are informed of what is going on nationally and internationally. It doesn't waste my time. Also I appreciate that the news don't have an emotional undertone. Mostly pure information with some footage shown. Just a very efficient way to deliver a product and then let people move on with their lives.

One thing that makes ARD such a good source of information is its worldwide network of correspondents who gather information abroad. There are studios in twelve other European countries, in four African countries, six studios in Asia, three studios in the USA, one in Mexico and one in Brazil.

Let‘s be clear: Germans love stuff being dry. Dry humor, dry talking, dry facts. And I learned to love this as well. Drama is just so exhausting. PS: FOX news is just embarrassing to watch, srsly

In my opinion, German news programs are information programs, while American news programs are entertainment programs in which world events play a relatively minor role.

The fact that "Bernd das Brot" made an appearance made this 100% more real! Good job mate!

Bro brought up GEZ without provoking a war, how is that possible

And Susanne Daubner is a Legend

One aspect to add about the public funded TV stations in Germany is that they are required to be politically neutral. Actually, because they are funded by the public. For the same reason there are also restrictions on how much commercials they can show. I think these factors play an important role to ensure that the news are factually correct and don't promote alternate realities.

The 'US Centrism' thing is even more obvious as a Canadian. Canada is literally right next door sharing over 4600 kms (2860 mi) of border with the US. We get US networks here. We get TV and streaming from the US. We get advertising from the US. But it's entirely one way. The most surreal example of it was when I was in Bellingham Washington - just 23 mi south of the border, and a clerk was surprised at my Canadian credit card. He asked if I was on vacation. When I asked why, he said that I was a long way from home. I pointed out that the Canadian border was just up the street (I pointed north :) ), he apologised and said he just moved to Bellingham from Texas. I can assure you that most Canadians know where the US border nearest to them is - whether they want to or not. :)

Herzlichen Glückwunsch! Ich halte diesen Beitrag für wirklich informativ, neutral und ausgewogen - mehr davon!

Here in Italy is mostly the same as in Germany except the news bulletin (we call it "telegiornale" or "TG") airs at different times and is read by different speakers on the 3 main channels of the national television (but the actual news are the same), at around 19:00, 20:00 and 20:30 respectively. That way you don't risk missing it. The different channels then usually feature different special segments after the main one such as "TG2 Parlamento" on RAI2 (special from the parliament) or TGR on RAI3 (regional news, different for each Italian region).

After 1,5 weeks on my 2 week roadtrip in the US as a German I literally started searching for the Tagesschau on youtube. It's weird how Americans live in their own tiny news bubble.

I was in Canada when Notre Dame burned. It was all over the news in Germany while I was still running around blissfully unaware. It finally had like 30s screentime during the late news. It was such an odd experience, living in a bubble like that.

The heute journal is also very important, a little like the Tagesthemen - also a lot of discussing of the themes. I had the luc to do an internship at ZDF during my Bachelor's degree, and got even more lucky to be at the heute journal for a day. And oh boy, those people digg into sources, have lots of calls and what not, sometimes only in order to secure 15 secures of video material to broadcast to back up a topic. Has truly been fascinating to be with such a dedicated and passionate team for a day.

Here in Switzerland, we've got three mainline news shows on our public channels (there are three, one entirely dedicated to news and information). The first is Schweiz Aktuell (roughly Switzerland Recent. The show is about national news, airing at 19:00). The second is the Tagesschau, airing at around 20:00, which covers news stories both domestic and foreign. And then there's 10 vor 10 (=10 to 10, airing at that time at night), which covers the most important news stories of the day in short and adds news about significant event of the last few hours. There's other news shows like Eco, which is, as the name implies, about the economy.

I highly appreciate the fact that you actually pronounce all German abbrevations etc. in this video in German, as opposed to English or trying to translate everything directly. We need more multilinguistic videos on RU-vid, honestly, including those directed at an English-speaking audience :)

As a german I just always thought watching american or UK news was incredibly frustrating because all I wanted was a quick summary of everything that's going on instead of half-an-hour segments about one topic which might not even be "big" news 😅 Having lived in the UK for 5 years now I've realised that's not really a thing lol

One big advantage of puplic television is no ads or nearly no ads. Though you can watch a movie without interrupted by commercials 😮.

You looked into so many aspects and answered lots of possible counterarguments for the Information you presented! I get the impression that you really did your research about this! Thank you!

There's also a channel that is a project of two countries: Arte, a project from france and Germany and they both show a very interesting program in French and German.

I remember being in the U.S. in the 90s trying to find out who won the elections in Germany and who might be my new chancellor when returning to Germany. I did not manage to find any international news. One of a series of big disappointments about life in the U.S.

As a former American who has immigrated to German-speaking Switzerland, I've watched a fair share of US-expat videos. There are several popular channels on RU-vid where the hosts speak pretty bad German. I was delighted to hear your German and also appreciate that you made an effort to include to include German when appropriate. Dein Akzent ist nicht zu schlecht. Respekt!.

As an ARD consumer for nearly 60 years now I can confirm: Your video is a piece of good work! 👍 As a high frequent traveler through your homeland (till 2015) I can say that for my proof there is not a lot news in your News. 15 minutes Tagesschau normally show 10 to 15 videos to different themes. Plus a couple of short messages by reading.

What could have been mentioned is that German newspapers on the other hand are privately owned and tend to have subtle directions. In Germany many people, besides watching news, also read a lot of newspapers, so this has to be taken into account. Although, to get several opinions on a topic, most people read multiple newspapers.

I lived in the US for nearly four years, and watching news there is crazy. It's extremely subjective, politicized, very emotional, and sometimes very hateful. I especially noticed this around political election times

Funnily enough, the only thing in Germany that comes close to Fox News is the former head of Bild who, as far as I know, now runs a RU-vid channel.

I think you misrepresented the perceived ubiquity of the Tagesschau on German television. All these other channels you mentioned used to be available only in one region. They used to be called "third programs" (die Dritten), because before the advent of cable and satellite TV there were only three channels: ARD (das Erste), ZDF (das Zweite*), and a third regional channel. For example, in Bavaria that was the BR (Bayerischer Rundfunk), in Hesse it was the HR (Hessischer Rundfunk), in northern Germany it was the NDR (Norddeutscher Rundfunk) - I guess you see the pattern. These regional programs focused on regional topics but are part of the same organization as the ARD. That's why they broadcasted the Tagesschau as well. Fast forward to the age of satellite, and now internet-based television, and you can tune into all of the regional programs! Not that many people do that as their programming often isn't the most thrilling, to be honest, and most people probably aren't that interested in local topics from another part of Germany. But they still show the Tagesschau at 8 pm. That is the reason why you see the Tagesschau so often. In short: originally, nobody would have been able to receive all the local channels. There's no nefarious Gleichschaltung of news sources on German television. Besides, we now have soooo many more channels than back in the day. And various of them do have their own news shows. It's just that the Tagesschau (as well as ZDF's "heute") is really, really good and therefore most other news shows don't stand a chance. So many people watch the Tagesschau, not because of lack of alternatives, but because they _want_ to watch it! * that's even in the name as ZDF stands for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen

No fuzz, no banners, no bling-bling, more or less neutral. Just the information. That's what I'm there for. In the "superior" version of the Tagesschau (Tagethemen) the hosts are even allowed to smile and throw in ONE joke every other episode or so. Love it.

I cannot remember the name of the German journalist who said that news should be presented cool, but not cold. (I am paraphrasing because I couldn’t find the original quote yet.) For me, that is one essential aspect of good news reporting: Present *facts* in a calm and neutral manner (Americans might call that “boring”), don’t put your personal spin and feelings on it. Let the audience know about the facts and make of it what they will. News is not entertainment, nor should news be twisted into entertainment in the way U.S. outlets do it. At least that is my opinion in this matter.

Very good summary. Just one small point to be precise: 3sat is not part of ARD, but parts of ARD are involved in the programme. 3sat is a channel operated jointly by public broadcasters from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. (Austria and a large part of Switzerland are German-speaking)

i love that you had the clip of ton steine scherben destroying (or rather: trying to destroy) the table at the studio. that video is iconic

The clip about the "Jugendwort" wasn't part of a regular Tagesschau. It was a web exclusive.

Four times the population, yet one fourth of news viewership. Then again, considering how bad the news is in the US, maybe it's not so bad that nobody is watching. 🙂

Thank you! I've been waiting for years to see such a good presentation about this, one of my favourite benefits of living in Germany

We also grow up watching the news. There are extra kids-news channels that explain most of the topics in kids friendly ways with animations and other words. When i was in school everyone watched „Logo“ on Kika, one of the most popular kids channels. I loved that! And it teached me important and interesting facts and that i can trust what is said on tv in the public news.

There are some interesting things: Sometimes a topic can be so big it doesn't fit into those 15 minutes but it might still be of national importance. In this case the Tagesschau will be followed by a "Brennpunkt" (focus point), a longer format 10-30 minute section focused on only a single news topic. The Tagesschau will still contain a summary and then refer people to the Brennpunkt. The original program will be pushed back respectively. This happens around once or twice a month. Also starting at 20:00 public TV stations are no longer permitted to show advertisements. Therefore the most expensive slot for TV advertisements on a regular day is the slot right before Tagesschau to my knowledge.

As a German now I learned why all the good stuff started at 8:15. I just never thought about it before

PBS brought you Sesame Street...so that's how important non-commercial TV is... ;-)

I think an interesting to note is the existence of News for kids ( logo! Nachrichten), in which they explain the circumstances in a way that children can understand. Also while the publicly funded shows like Tagesschau exist and are watched by all sides of the political spectrum I think it's worth mentioning that it's different when it comes to newspapers. Mainly the Bild- Zeitung is I think read by more people of the right.

In Germany we also have the "Tagesthemen" on ARD and the "Heute Journal" on ZDF a little later in the evening, in which both channels each report 30 minutes in more detail about daily news and these programs are also popularly watched.

It is the way the news are conveyed which disturbed me in the US. I remember when I was in the US in 2007 and there was a shooting at a university. I tried to find out what really had happened, but all I could find were recordings of circling helicopters and crying people. I eventually gave up searching for information and called my German family and asked for information which I got. I was more informed about the details than the rest of the group who hadn't phoned home. I found that rather disturbing.

Fun fact: in Austria the prime time is also at 8:15 and most chanels including the Austrian version of ARD the ORF have put their news programs into that time window

It boils down to this: US news media doesn't actually exist to give anyone the news. That would be "too boring" in their words. They exist to draw in as many viewers as possible and hope those viewers stick around through a barrage of adverts. It's as simple as that. You can ask anyone (like me) who has worked in the industry. Money is all that matters. They just so happen to put out something that vaguely has the same outline as "news" enough to dupe people into thinking it is. But at the end of the day, it all amounts to tabloid journalism. Everyone from Fox to CNN, OAN to NPR, Sinclair to independent local.... it's all the same: carefully-crafted emotional manipulation.

Yup, the Tagesschau is huge, and it used to be even much bigger back in the days when linear TV was more important than it is today, in the age of podcasts. Up until at least the late 1990s, it was even considered rude to call people on the phone between 8pm and 8:15pm. And I never heard about that App before. Then again, I can't really imagine renting a scooter, either.

Great reminder why publically funded TV is so important.

Also, in school all our teachers say you gotta watch the Tagesschau or read a daily newspaper to be in formed and be good in school (even though it is almost never a part in an exam but we did talk a lot about news stuff in class)

For good reason, Tagesschau is named ‚Tagesschau‘ and not ‚Tagesshow‘. I like your translation ‚review of the day‘ which it actually is. They present news to present news, not for business purpose. They are funded quite well anyway and don’t depend on it.

Arte Journal is also good alternative to the Tagesschau if you want a slightly different flavour. The time it airs is 19:20 in Germany. The main differences are that its 20mins instead of the 15 on ARD, the perspective is more european/french so its not exactly the same topics, some topics get more or less time than on the tagesschau and instead of Sport there are news about concerts, plays or other art related stuff at the end.

There is loads of criticism on the Tagesschau, it’s very left leaning according to studies and even their own staff has harsch criticism on it, as well as the journalists trade union. They say the system is no longer up to date and a new form of public service should be formed

Here in Germany it's the Axel Springer SE which is serving the trash to the people like fox

I'm German and I was shocked when I saw American news for the first time. To me, it looks overly and unnecessarily exaggerated. Like mentioned in the video, the focus is more on entertainment than on being factual and informative. American news feel incredibly unprofessional and low standard, and I'm not surprised why "the stupid American" is a stereotype that exist.

We have NEWS and you have TV Shows claiming to be NEWS.

Ton Steine Scherben smashing that table, a true classic

Great video! Greetings from germany! Fantastic pronouciation on all the german words, great job man :D Keep it up!

When I watched American news for the first time I was disappointed. All I had seen was a cheap opinion show. Where were the news? Behind a paywall? This is an aspect of privately owned media that was not mentioned in the video: they will produce it as cheaply as possible. One expert who tells his opinion over and over is cheaper than actual reporting or buying news stories from a news agency.

Erm, the guy destroying a table was NOT in a news show, but a talk show, that was misleading. Also a veeeery long time ago, 1971.

Tagesschau has shaped my life. Not only the Jugendwort which not only got included in the news but also gets a "little" show every year. (Also germans seem to have some kind of humour) But also the farewell of the news speaker Jan Hofer was such a huge event. Nobody cared about any news speaker as much as about him in the past. They were only presenting the daily topics. But with this living legend leaving the stage, the others seemed to have gotten more space to show their personality and get some sneaky jokes in from time to time So while being the "boring", distanced news show; they still managed to create such a personal feeling towards their correspondants, speakers and just overall topics

The "jugendwort des jahres" is kinda a meme highlight on social media haha

Thank You for that, on the point! I´ve studied journalism in Austria, and for a long time the anglo-saxon manner of presenting news was an idol. Think about Sorkin´s "News Room". The situation now in US is disapointing, actually the founders should be ashamed of that. One topic you didn´t mention: Ads are forbitten during ARD-News (and by the way, because I´m Austrian: during ORF-News as well). As mentioned in comments before: News never ever should be driven by commercial intrerests! It´s a public good.

Here in Norway we have Dagsrevyen, which roughly means the same as Tageschaue and the news are delivered in a similar fashion. The differences are that Dagsrevyen is sent 19:00 opposed to 20:00 and the duration is a little longer, at the cost of bringing less important news. Later in the evening (21:00, 23:00) there are two shorter and briefer news shows.

I live in germany, and your video is very good and acurate

To answer your question in the beginning: Yes, it is a better way!

As someone who works in news braoadcasting in Germany: We DO have a couple of news-only channels: N-TV (associated with RTL), N24 (associated with Pro7/Sat1) and Phoenix (associated with the public station ZDF) They’re just a bit less watched than the main stations they’re associated to.

I think a huge difference is that ARD and ZDF don't need to make money (at least not as their ultimate goal). This means they don't have to fight for audiences, and thus don't have to be more spectacular, more entertaining, more exciting. They can concentrate on reporting news, they don't need to sell them or make them attractive.

Im a migrant. German news espc Tagesschau is the best. It educates me every time better and better. That is essential for a democracy

"the un-word of the ýear" is defenetlý social engeneering to reeducate citicens "for theýre better good" (The end justifies the means- der zweck heiligt die mittel ) as we germans saý.. 😄

I always watched Tagesschau, I think they deliver a good and neutral perspective, which others don't, taking BILD for example.

As a side note, here in Switzerland (geran speaking part), it is very similar as in Germany, except our tlmeslot is 19:30-20:00 - so in the old times with linear tv, you could append german news afterwards 😹.

I live in Austria and our prime time also starts at 8:15 pm even though we have our news at 7:30 pm

I love how you included Bernd das Brot, our iconic depressive loaf of bread! 😍😆

The problem with news in america for me is that they spent most of its coverage about a car acident on main street or a brawl in the local pub or a person drowned in the local swimming pool rathen than war in the ukraine and israel. Most news in Amerika are terrible local.

What I dislike most about American TV - including the "news" - is that there is an ad break every 10 minutes. How can you focus on or follow anything if it's interrupted by ads so frequently? I mean the only message you gonna take home is to go shopping soon.

What a great video :) Keep up the great work !

Another aspect is that both public broadcasters in Germany - the federal ARD and the central ZDF - have another daily news show going deeper into the topics. Tagesthemen (topics of the day) and heute-journal (the diary entry of today). Even those have more viewers than Fox News. Those two are also uploaded on RU-vid daily. It's for those liking an extended view on what happened on the planet that day. They're the most watched German News shows of German TV outside of Germany, too

One of the specific reasons as to why germans trust the press more is also a result of the "German Press Code" coming from the German Press Council, which lays out fundamentals how journalism has to be done if a news source agreed to it. They do have an official english translation of the guidelines. "Respect for the truth, preservation of human dignity and accurate informing of the public are the overriding principles of the Press."

The „Rundfunkbeitrag“ is actually something quite controversial here in Germany. Because it keeps raising again and again, while it’s not really clear where the money is going and the program isn’t really getting better. Sometimes the costs for some productions are beyond explanation, like over 200k for a talk show episode where you don’t need to build expensive backgrounds, masks, outfits, special effects, etc. It appears like they could stop producing new content, or stop broadcasting entirely, and the Rundfunkbeitrag would still raise. Also, the way how it's colleted is disliked by many people. It's basically like a de-facto tax, but it's not rally a tax by law.

The bigger problem when it comes to "information" is the many "private" opinions shared on the mass medium Internet, which ultimately lead to either confusion and a general distrust, or a kind of regulars' table mentality, or a certain lethargy, amongst general public.

i love the "jugendwort" segment. the newscaster has to do this every year and its a source of memes every time