Nicolas Friedrich: "Satire is sometimes a balancing act"

"Our satire is based on facts, on journalistic reporting," says Friedrich, who has been working in the online team of the satirical format, which is primarily known from television, since 2015. For him, thorough research is the first step behind a good joke. Even within his team, which consists of journalists and comedy writers, there is sometimes a need to discuss how far a joke can go. "It's sometimes a difficult balancing act between seriousness and humor," says Friedrich. For example, there are some topics that are not at all suitable for satire on the show. With others, it is important to get to the heart of the issue for the audience without distorting it. Quality control according to journalistic criteria is important: "We always take a journalistic look at it. Can we justify this?"

In his presentation, Friedrich also gave an insight into the work of a social media editorial team. The main task here is to keep an eye on the platforms and react to trends. Social media is very fast-moving. Some platforms become more popular than others, and the internal platform structures are also constantly changing. "You have to stay on the ball," says Friedrich, who helped set up the online offering of the ZDF heute-show from the very beginning. Overall, it is important to bring different trades under one roof: Online offering and classic TV format, comedy and politics, editors and joke writers. Nicolas Friedrich therefore advises career starters to take a broad approach: "Journalistic skills must not be neglected", for example when it comes to research and fact-checking. In addition to a love of satire, a good general education is also helpful for his profession, says Friedrich.

A detailed interview with Nicolas Friedrich, in which he also gives tips for young professionals, can be found in the digital magazine Werksgelände.

In the lecture series "Die Medienmacher:innen", communication professionals report on their professional practice every Wednesday in the winter semester 2023/24 under the direction of Tanja Köhler, Professor of Digital Journalism and Audiovisual Media at H-BRS. The event is not only aimed at students, but at anyone interested in media professions and how they are changing as a result of digitalization.