This paper offers an ethnographic account of the editorial response to the COVID-19 outbreak by the Science Media Center Germany. Ethnographic research data was gathered during a 4-week fieldstay in January 2020 which coincided with the first weeks of the COVID-19 outbreak. The findings offer insights into how the editorial staff grappled with the scientific non-knowledge and uncertainty that marked the initial phase of the global COVID-19 outbreak, while simultaneously dealing with acute journalistic demands for expertise.

Memory in journalism has largely been investigated in relation to the commemoration of historical key events. This article sheds light on everyday, less obvious forms of memory in journalism with a focus on non-commemorative memory. We carried out a large-scale content analysis of contemporary newspaper articles (n = 2799) about two historic storm surge disasters in the Netherlands (1953) and Germany (1962) and a subsequent qualitative study based on 10 interviews with Dutch and German journalists. Combining content-based results with actor views enabled us to look below the surface of memory in news reporting and lay bare potential triggers, justifications, and underlying motivations for memory use. We found that journalists frequently use memory to connect past, present, and future, driven by a range of professional, economic, ideological, and cultural motivations that go beyond commemoration. We propose the term “strategic motivations” to better understand the dynamics of memory in journalism.

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Der ethnografische „Werkzeugkasten“ aus der Kulturanthropologie hat sich in der Journalismusforschung seit den klassischen Redaktionsethnografien der 1970er Jahre als wertvolles Instrument erwiesen, um die Praktiken, Kulturen und Strukturen, die die journalistische Realität ausmachen, sichtbar zu machen. In einer Zeit der verschwimmenden Grenzen, in der sowohl die journalistische als auch die wissenschaftliche Arbeit zunehmend in digitalen Räumen stattfindet, ist es allerdings geboten, Kontext und Konsequenzen des ethnografischen Vorgehens zu überdenken. Anhand unserer eigenen Erfahrungen mit einer hybriden Ethnografie mit virtueller und physischer Präsenz im Science Media Center Germany diskutieren wir, wie kulturanthropologisch informierte Journalismusforscher:innen ihre eigene Situiertheit reflektieren können, wenn sie die Praktiken der Nachrichtenproduktion in einer zunehmend digitalen Arbeits- und Lebenswelt erforschen. Indem wir die Entstehung einiger Kernkonzepte der Kulturanthropologie und die daraus resultierende Herangehensweise an die Ethnografie skizzieren, regen wir zugleich eine stärkere Integration anthropologischer Fragen und Konzepte in die ethnografische Journalismusforschung an.

In the communicative figuration of science communication (Hepp & Hasebrink, 2017), a variety of actors, practices and orientations contribute to the mediation of scientific knowledge and expertise. By curating scientific content for a journalistic audience, Science Media Centers (SMCs) can take up a powerful intermediary position. In this paper, we apply a figurational framework to understand what roles SMCs can take in science communication. Building on ethnographic material gathered during January and October 2020, we analyze through which practices, communicative relations, mission and normative assumptions SMC Germany has shaped its position in science communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. Doing so, we follow the “cultural turn” in science communication research. Building on the concept of brokerage, we conclude that SMC Germany has taken on roles as a knowledge broker by providing journalists with curated scientific content, a trust broker by facilitating relationships between journalists and scientists, and a value broker by promoting the status of scientific expertise in the social knowledge order.