Dialogue Formats in Public Service Media

What contribution can public service media make in the digital age as a platform for social dialogue? A future workshop is using scientific methods to develop scenarios and strategies for sustainable dialogue formats in digitalised societies.

These scenarios are intended to stimulate debate as “possible futures” and overcome path dependency. The following aspects will be considered in particular:

• the importance of digital dialogue functions for democracy and social integration;
• trends in media use in the context of dialogue formats;
• existing examples and approaches for innovative dialogue formats;
• development of concrete scenarios and recommendations for action for public service media and other relevant actors.

The Future Workshop brought together a small group of experts from academia, the media, NGOs and public broadcasters. The one-and-a-half-day workshop took place on the afternoon of 25 September and throughout the day on 26 September. Media practitioners and NGOs were present on the second day.

The findings of the workshop will be published at the end of 2025.

The project is funded as part of the “Agora Digital Transformation” (ADT) initiative, with support from the Stiftung Mercator. The Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI) and the Department of Communication and Media Research (DCM) at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) are carrying out the project.

Photo by Philip Ho on Unsplash