Where does innovation in journalism come from, how is it implemented, and what factors drive or hinder its development? Scholars have explored these questions from different perspectives for over two decades. Our research holistically considers the broader factors that influence the development of journalistic innovation at the macro, meso, and micro levels, and whether it is internally or externally driven. In a three-year international research project, we have unpacked innovation with this multidimensional approach, looking at the most important innovations in journalism in Austria, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK. Our study focuses on the mutual interplay between journalists, media organizations, and society. We investigated 100 case studies with 137 guided interviews with senior managers or project leaders. The results show that the focus of supporting and obstructive factors is internal and on the meso level and that many parallels exist between media systems. Internal factors are the intrinsic motivation of individuals, which need the support of open-minded management, allowing a culture of experimentation without economic pressure and assembling interdisciplinary teams. Across countries and independent of the respective media system, three external key drivers of innovation in journalism can be identified: technology, societal change, and change in the digital media universe. The study confirms once again as if through a magnifying glass that journalism is primarily a public service, especially for those innovations that strengthen the role of journalism in a democratic society.

News podcasts have emerged as a relevant medium, contributing to the collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of information in mass media discourse. This paper presents an analysis of the sociodemographic backgrounds, professional profiles, role perceptions, and values of news podcasters based on an online survey of 195 participants in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. The results reveal that news podcasters are predominantly male, middle-aged, and academically educated with no journalistic socialization or journalistic working experience. In terms of self-images and values, news podcasters emphasize the importance of education, information, and entertainment, while rejecting conventional concepts like criticism and control. Overall, they demonstrate a strong orientation towards the needs of their audiences and strive to be responsive to their preferences. Yet, the monetization of content through financing models such as sponsoring or native advertisement is not established on a broad scale. These findings shed light on the unique characteristics of news podcasters and provide insights into their status in a rapidly changing media environment.

There is consensus across many industries and scientific disciplines that artificial intelligence (AI) and automation will be central drivers for the further development of societies worldwide. In this context, the question arises as to what impetus AI is already providing as an innovation for journalism and the media industry and what potential can be identified when looking into the future. This chapter examines best practices from the JoIn-DemoS research project for the integration of AI into journalistic processes presented in Austria, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, from which emerged a variety of dimensions and examples in terms of applications, implementations, potentials, and (a few) risks. The study shows that AI is primarily of importance as an assistance to journalism but that new competencies for practice and tasks for journalism research can also be derived from this development in distribution and marketing. <!----> <!----> <!----> <!---->

In the past decade, journalists around the world have joined forces in networks to investigate social grievances across media companies. These projects are linked by journalism’s democratic political claim to critique and control, which technological progress has accelerated. Such collaborations, as they became known, for example, through the Panama Papers, turned the classic journalistic task of investigation into an innovative field. Investigative reports are no longer limited to individual countries or societies but are of importance across countries. This cultural change was clearly manifested in the JoIn-DemoS project: in all five participating countries, “collaborative-investigative journalism” was identified as one of the 20 most important innovations in journalism. Investigative journalism across media houses, national and international, has an impact both at the level of the product – i.e., the journalistic offering – and at the organizational level. <!----> <!----> <!----> <!---->

This chapter aims to advance the theory of innovation in journalism. Based on the results of our three-year international research project, JoIn-DemoS, we specify the concepts of change, transformation, and innovation and outline their links and relationships. The findings show how individual innovations affect journalism at any or all of the micro-, meso-, and macrolevels and how these levels are linked to one another, e.g., through journalistic culture. Furthermore, the innovations selected for our study can strengthen those quality factors that make journalism so special and distinct from other communication forms. The democratic value of innovations in journalism lies in their occasional enhancement of the advantages offered by digital media, but mostly, they aim to reduce the threats to democracy posed by the digital media universe. Innovations bring depth and variety instead of accelerating the rapid speed of news, and they emphasize original reporting instead of pushing the often-criticized churnalism that only rehashes prepackaged material. <!----> <!----> <!----> <!---->