The TV stations have increased their social media teams for the European Football Championship. One reason for this is hatred and agitation on the Internet. One person is particularly hit.
Thanks to the European Football Championship, not only are TV ratings increasing, but the number of social media posts is also skyrocketing.
Most of it is okay or even amusing, but some things are simply rude, sexist or racist. In order to counteract this, ARD and ZDF have, of necessity, increased their staff.
“There is a small minority who mob and agitate,” said ZDF sports director Thomas Fuhrmann of the German press agency. “Then we show a clear edge. In a few cases we have to warn or even block users and delete comments when red lines are crossed. ” Especially when women are at the microphone, social media sometimes becomes an anti-social medium. ZDF reporter Claudia Neumann is primarily criticized.
ZDF-Sport has an online and social media editorial team, “which also takes care of community management on the various platforms,” explained the sports director. “Normally, one or two people per day are enough for this, but we strengthen the team at major events like the EM because the number of comments is increasing rapidly. When Claudia Neumann is at the microphone, up to six people are involved in community management. ” As a motto, the team tweeted at the beginning of the tournament: “Hate speech and bashing against our moderators: we will certainly not tolerate them inside.”
It’s similar with the first. “We want to provide space for discussions, but that has to be moderated,” said EM program director Christian Wagner from ARD. “It was therefore clear to us that we had to strengthen our commitment team. We also borrowed specialists from other editorial offices for the EM. ”
Internally, ARD also speaks of the “little heart team” when it comes to the social media experts. According to Wagner, your job is: “We try to turn a shit storm into a candy storm – and we often succeed.” However, if there is no other way, ARD will also delete and block it. The target of misogynistic comments on ARD is Almuth Schult, who is the first woman to be engaged as an expert over an entire tournament.
Curiously enough, the “Sportschau” also gets sexist comments when Claudia Neumann comments on games on the neighboring broadcaster. “Some viewers confuse ARD and ZDF when broadcasting,” said EM program director Wagner. His team also responded, after making inappropriate comments, demanding more respect for the colleague from the competition and countering them casually: “Regardless of the fact that Claudia Neumann and Ariane Hingst comment on ZDF, a nicer way of dealing with each other and a slightly more respectful tone would be really cool , right? ”
Neumann himself is calm. “I still don’t read anything, I only get knowledge when someone asks me about it. The reflex to look online after games is really alien to me. It has always been, today even with 100 percent consistency, ”she said during the European Championship of the dpa.
The social media teams also try to react loosely. The ZDF sports director said that «smart and clever answers are needed quickly». Example: An even more harmless tweet read: «Why are two women commenting? Why?” Whereupon the ZDF countered with the counter question: “Why not?”
The smart answers also included: “Statistically speaking, women make up around 50 percent of the world’s population. The fact that two of them are commenting on a football game together shouldn’t come as a surprise to people with basic math skills. The “Stern” then praised the “perfect answers”, and the “Frankfurter Rundschau” attested a “great offensive performance”.
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