CeBIT 2014: Good or bad IT?

Zurich, March 12, 2014: The hype around Facebook, Twitter and Co. has ended. Even Apple is no longer viewed as a religion but, rather, an ordinary company. This shows a long-term analysis of the media image of the IT industry by the Swiss-based Media Tenor Research Institute.

“When IT executives come to Hanover next week, they have to face a different attitude from the media than last year”, explains Dr. Christian Kolmer of Media Tenor. “The quasi-religious enthusiasm for the latest gadgets from Apple and Samsung has given way to a more nuanced view.” Privacy concerns have already risen on the media agenda over the last years, but the NSA scandal has exposed the downside of technical progress. “In 2014, journalists always ask: cui bono,” says Dr. Kolmer. When Facebook acquired WhatsApp in February, the media were quick to identify the real value in the data of the more than 400 million users worldwide. Journalists began to promote alternatives to WhatsApp immediately after the deal was made public.

Traditionally, the media coverage of IT products has been persistently positive. “Apple saved a fortune of advertising costs due to the free airspace given for its product launches by TV journalists,” remembers Dr. Kolmer. But the sky-high expectations raised by this style of reporting have started to haunt the company after the death of its founder Steve Jobs. Reporting about a lack of innovation, the exploitation of workers in China and accusations of ‘greenwashing’ have dented its image. Google, on the other hand, has not yet overcome criticism of its dominance and hunger for private data. In the wake of the NSA affair, the media spotlight fell more firmly on Google — especially in TV news.

“The IT industry is reaching another crossroads,” concludes Dr. Kolmer. “As the media have started to report slightly more favorably about it in the beginning of 2014, CeBIT offers the IT sector a unique opportunity to deal with its customers’ concerns.”

For this study Media Tenor analyzed all 22,999 reports about companies, industries and managers in 12 international TV news shows, 95,599 reports in 4 international business media and 69,494 quoted analyst statements in 8 international business media. The average inter-coder reliability in the 4th quarter of 2013 was 86.38 %.