"It's not always easy, but there's something wonderful about it." "I'm something like a compulsive offender." "Being a journalist is an addiction...a lifestyle." Bascha Mika, chief editor of the "tageszeitung", ARD network journalist Hartmann von der Tann and Roger de Weck of "Die Zeit" talk about their vocation, aims, wishes and fears. These and many other observations were elicited by Herlinda Koelbl, the internationally renowned photographer and recipient of numerous awards, during the making of the film "The Mob. Power and Powerlessness of the Media" in cooperation with the Grimme prizewinner Enno Hungerland for the WDR network in 2001.
Politicians need and use the mass media to present themselves and communicate their messages and aims to their own party, their political opponents and above all the voters. Journalists seek proximity to politicians, since both are united by common interests and by the fascination of power. "I think the genus politician and the genus journalist are sometimes very similar in psychological makeup", says Giovanni di Lorenzo, chief editor of the Berlin "Tagesspiegel". But the relationship remains ambivalent: "Highwaymen" was what Chancellor Helmut Schmidt called TV and press reporters and photographers. Chancellor Helmut Kohl said he didn't read what was written about him. Journalists for their part occasionally succumb to the temptation of influencing political decisions by their reporting.
This highly charged field of symbiosis and antithesis is analyzed by Herlinda Koelbl in her television documentary, which has attracted considerable public attention. The film shows the media scene in Berlin and the daily routine of the working press print media, television, photographers, camera teams: the torpor of waiting around for a press "event", the jostling for position for the best shot, fast-breaking news and short-lived rumour. The documentary shows how true it is that in politics, the person is the message; what is new is the intermingling of the political and social spheres in Berlin. In numerous interviews, journalists talk about the way they see their profession and about the opportunities and hazards of their work.
The Museum of Contemporary History shows over fifty videoprints from the film "The Mob". An audiovisual station presents excerpts of interviews with media professionals and three films covering their working routine. With this exhibition, the Museum of Contemporary History continues the successful collaboration with Herlinde Koelbl that began in 2000 with the photo exhibition, "Traces of Power. How the Office Changes the Person".
The book "Die Meute" (= "the mob"), published by the Knesebeck Verlag, is available in the Museum shop and the online shop at the price of EUR 19,90.
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