Public Welfare Oriented Media Policy

A media order that emphasizes the remoteness of the media from the state, seeks to secure diversity, protects public-law systems from market power, and seeks to prevent monopolies of opinion as well as economic cartels is still a good foundation for a modern or even technically revolutionary media world. We think future-proof concepts that protect and further develop this foundation.

One thing is certain: the challenges can only be met through the interplay of regulation (of platforms) and subsidies. In this respect, the new “Medienstaatsvertrag” marks an important paradigm shift: away from focusing on the existing broadcasting order and towards a consideration of the communicative public sphere of our society as a whole. It is important to build on this – and to rethink, for example, the mandate for ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio in connection with the funding of public service infrastructures.

Under constitutional law, there is no compelling connection between the public service concept and the established broadcasting structure. One component of corresponding reforms could therefore be a fund financed by the broadcasting contribution, which promotes quality journalism across all media. This approach was recently brought into play by a group of experts (New Media and Network Policy Strategy Group) set up by the IfM, and it can be linked to the intensifying debates on public-interest journalism and non-commercial European counter-models to Google, Facebook, etc. For all reform models, the following applies: It must be carefully examined which instruments are conducive to securing stable democratic information architectures. futur eins develops valid and practicable reform proposals for a modern media order/media policy in the digital age.