12-10-2024

For more accessibility: Foundations for journalistic content in plain language

The most important German news program has been available in plain language since summer 2024. The broadcaster ARD produces an additional edition of its daily news "Tagesschau" on weekdays, which is aimed specifically at people with little knowledge of German or with reading and learning difficulties. Such media offerings are still rare. The project "Easy and Plain Language in Journalism" of the Chair of Journalism and Communication Studies at the KU researches the requirements for developing inclusive journalistic content for all people and aims to support practical journalism.

Due to illness, learning difficulties or a different mother tongue, not everyone can read and understand standard journalistic texts on the Internet or in the newspaper. Journalistic offerings that are designed to be accessible in terms of language, content and form should provide access to current news for as many people as possible. Many editorial offices are generally open to the topic of plain and easy language in journalism, says Professor Friederike Herrmann, who teaches Journalism at the KU. According to Herrmann, who heads the research project "Easy and Plain Language in Journalism", editorial offices often do not have the resources to deal with the topic in depth, which is necessary for the development of corresponding offers. So far, news in plain language is most likely to be found in public broadcasters. The KU research project aims to help ensure that more media companies have the opportunity to offer linguistically accessible texts in the future.

"I think science has a duty to make a contribution and initiate such topics – especially journalism as a subject that is so essential for democracy." The research and transfer project aims to create a knowledge base for practice, not only for further academic research, but also for journalists. On the one hand, the results should serve as a starting point for further research; on the other hand, they should provide editors with a better basis for developing content in plain and simple language. "The project aims to deepen user knowledge. There is very, very little research in the field of journalism and there should be much more, considering that more than ten percent of the population has a low literacy level", says Herrmann.

It is precisely this group that the research project is targeting. Current and potential users of journalistic services in plain and simple language report in qualitative guided interviews on how they receive news, which topics interest them, which media and platforms they prefer to use and what requirements they have of the services. It has already been shown that the audience for linguistically accessible articles is just as diverse as users of traditional journalistic content, says Herrmann.

"It also makes a big difference whether certain offers are written in a foreign language, whether they take too little account of the needs of people with a learning disability or people who have mild dementia. These are very different requirements." As part of the project, people with disabilities, people who find reading and writing difficult and refugees are interviewed.

Outside of journalism, simplified texts have already been available in various places for several years. For example, a version of the websites of German authorities can usually be selected in plain language. The German network on plain language, the “Netzwerk Leichte Sprache”, has summarized rules in a guideline. It states, for example, that short words should be used and, where impossible, long terms should be separated by a hyphen to make them easier to read. Instead of using technical and foreign words such as "workshop", the rules recommend using familiar terms such as "working group".

There are special challenges for journalism. According to Professor Herrmann, the rules of plain language are not always easy to apply. She gives an example: "You can't make an archbishop a bishop." In addition, journalistic texts have special features that previous regulations do not take into account. Friederike Herrmann says that students in her Master's seminar noticed that citing sources in journalistic texts in the third sentence can also be a hindrance to understanding the core information. The students had discussed the idea of listing sources in a box directly next to or below an article instead.

Ideas such as these illustrate that research and the associated engagement with plain and simple language also opens up opportunities for traditional journalism. "This is a good side effect to raise awareness of how to make traditional journalism more comprehensible", says Herrmann. She would like to give editors the idea of having a reviewer for plain language read journalistic articles from time to time. People in the target group for easy-to-read services are involved as reviewers. She herself once experienced a reviewer reading through a text, says Herrmann: "It opens your eyes. You tend to think it just has to be easy, like for children. But there's another dimension to it and you only realize that when you sit next to the reviewer checking the text."

"nachrichtenleicht" a plain language format at Deutschlandfunk

The practical partner of the research project at the KU is the radio station Deutschlandfunk with its "nachrichtenleicht" plain language service (see below). In addition to articles from other media, contributions from “nachrichtenleicht” are included in the guided interviews conducted by Professor Herrmann's team. The results are fed back to Deutschlandfunk. The collaboration with Deutschlandfunk originated in a seminar in the Eichstätt Master's program in Journalism with a focus on innovation and management. Even before the start of the research project, a group of students had accompanied the development of the "nachrichtenleicht" Instagram service. At the end of the semester, the course presented a dossier with feedback on the offer to Deutschlandfunk. Dr. Marco Bertolaso, Head of Central News at Deutschlandfunk, appreciates the collaboration with the journalism department and the feedback from the students. "As a public editorial office, we are very interested in collaborating with other stakeholders who work for the common good. Specifically, the students' knowledge of digital offerings, their high level of innovation and the results of their research into user needs and expectations help us", he says.

The positive experiences on both sides – the journalism degree program and Deutschlandfunk – have led to the cooperation being continued beyond the Master's seminar as part of the current research project. Among other things, an editorial observation at Deutschlandfunk is planned. It is intended to show where editorial teams can use artificial intelligence for applications in plain and simple language. In addition to the practice partner, as many editorial offices as possible should benefit from the findings and ideas generated by the "Easy and Plain Language in Journalism" project once the project has been completed. They will be published in a workbook by the Otto Brenner Foundation, which is funding the research project. "This puts us at exactly the right interface where we can reach scientists and journalists", says Friederike Herrmann.
(Anna Zimmermann)

“Plain language“ and ”easy language"

The team of researchers explains both terms on the website for the research project: Plain language is an accessible form of language that is aimed in particular at people with learning difficulties. It is also characterized by its visual presentation, including the use of pictograms, explanatory images and larger fonts. A central element is that representatives of the target group are trained as so-called "reviewers" who critically proofread texts written in plain language and suggest changes. There are various scientific concepts that represent more or less strict sets of rules, so that the implementation in the finished texts may well be different. Easy language, often referred to in connection with plain language, also serves the goal of comprehensibility. It reduces the complexity of language and content in order to make texts more accessible. Easy language is more complex than plain language and benefits a wider audience.

„nachrichtenleicht“

"nachrichtenleicht" is a plain language news offer from the radio broadcaster Deutschlandfunk . The project's website contains current news articles as well as explanatory elements, e.g. on the European elections or the German constitution. On the radio, "nachrichtenleicht" is a weekly review on Fridays at shortly after 7 p.m. It is also available as a podcast and has been increasingly played out on Instagram since January 2023.

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