Hamburg, February 9, 2026: Public media has a new responsibility in the digital public sphere. They should not only broadcast content but also open spaces for debate and moderate and structure them reliably. A study entitled “The Dialogue Function of Public Service Media — Impulses from a Future Workshop for Media Policy,” commissioned by the nonprofit think tank Agora Digitale Transformation and presented today at the Hamburg State Representation in Berlin, shows how this role change can be achieved and what reforms are necessary to make it happen.
In the study, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulz (Leibniz Institute for Media Research Hans-Bredow-Institut), Prof. Dr. Manuel Puppis (University of Fribourg, Switzerland), and Magdalena Stratmann (Leibniz Institute for Media Research Hans-Bredow-Institut) outline public media’s responsibility for social dialogue in the digital sphere, beyond existing platform dependencies, and identify possible media policy directions. The authors argue that the creation of constructive, inclusive, and democratic communication spaces on the internet is not guaranteed, but rather requires institutional learning processes and an active media policy framework. To this end, it is necessary to
- Creating platform-independent dialogue spaces: Rather than limiting themselves to individual platforms such as Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, or YouTube, public media outlets should establish their own discussion spaces under journalistic oversight.
- Recognize moderation as a core task: Journalists working for public broadcasters should take on content-related, curatorial, and mediating roles. They facilitate ongoing dialogue and build bridges between different opinion groups.
- Legally anchor the development of dialogue format concepts for society as a whole: These dialogue formats must be an integral part of the public mandate in the State Media Treaty.
“Open exchange is a fundamental prerequisite for our democratic coexistence. There is also an urgent need for rules for digital spaces that are oriented toward the common good. I am grateful that the Future Workshop has developed proposals on how to establish communicative public discourse across platforms and the role that public media can play in this effort. Social dialogue must succeed in the digital media world as well. These proposals must be openly and seriously discussed,” said Dr. Carsten Brosda, Hamburg’s Senator for Culture and Media, at the presentation of the study.
Ulrike Demmer, Director General of Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg: “New technologies have fundamentally changed the conditions for public dialogue. As a public broadcaster, we must respond to this change if we want to continue fulfilling our mission as a communication platform financed by solidarity and committed to the common good. This report provides important impetus.”
Wolfgang Schulz, Professor at Universität Hamburg and Director of the Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut: “We should think more in terms of scenarios to debate the kind of digital future we want. We tried this approach in this project to promote dialogue, which will be necessary for a functioning democracy in the future.”
“In the age of big tech, strong public media are gaining new relevance for our democracy,” says Torben Klausa, Innovation Lead for Digital Public Sphere at Agora Digital Transformation. “But this new relevance also comes with new responsibilities. On the internet, constructive dialogue is a scarce commodity, not the dissemination of information. Media policymakers and public broadcasters can create real social value by working together.”
Further Links
- To the study “Dialogfunktion von Public Service Media” [The Dialogue Function of Public Service Media]
- To the summary of the study
- Literature analysis on “The Role of Public Service Media as Enablers of Dialogue in Digitalized Societies”
About the Project “Dialogue Formats in Public Service Media”
Digital communication is fundamentally changing the conditions of social understanding, prompting public service media to question their role in the digital age as platforms for social dialogue. Against this backdrop, the project “Dialogue Formats in Public Service Media” aimed to develop sustainable dialogue formats for digital societies. It centered on the importance of digital dialogue functions for democracy and social cohesion; current trends in media use; existing, innovative, practical examples; and the development of concrete scenarios and recommendations for action for public service media and other relevant actors. The Future Workshop, which took place on September 25 and 26, 2025, brought together a small group of experts from academia, media practice, NGOs, and public broadcasters.
About Agora Digital Transformation
Agora Digital Transformation is a think tank dedicated to updating our democracy. Its goal is to leverage digital transformation opportunities to strengthen democracy in Germany. As a nonprofit organization, the think tank operates in a nonpartisan, collaborative, and evidence-based manner, focusing on implementable and effective solutions for policymakers. To this end, Agora Digital Transformation seeks to exchange ideas and cooperate with innovators from society, administration, science, business, and politics.
Photo: Agora Digital Transformation/Hendrik Schneller