Making media fit for the future
The internet is transforming the media landscape. Polarisation and disinformation are the consequences. In the German state of Baden-Württemberg, a Citizens' Forum has therefore been developing proposals for a sustainable media landscape from June to October 2025. The final report is to be submitted to the state government and media representatives in January 2026.
Democracy thrives on dialogue. But this dialogue is under pressure: traditional media are struggling to maintain their reach, funding and trust. Online platforms have lowered the barriers to access, but tend to polarise. In addition to disinformation, disinterest also threatens people's ability to communicate.
What do you want?
What common points of reference do we still have? This is precisely where the Pressestiftung Baden-Württemberg (Press Foundation Baden-Württemberg) wanted to start with a Citizens' Forum - and consider together with citizens what a sustainable media landscape could look like. The mini-public not only asked: What is going wrong? But rather: What would you like to see - and how could this be realised?
The Citizens' Forum had four central goals:
- to visualise the current state of the media landscape
- to identify the needs and expectations of the participants
- to talk together about concrete possibilities for improvement
- and finally to consider: What could a media landscape look like if we could completely rethink it?
The forum will draw up a final report with recommendations. This will be presented to politicians, the media and other stakeholders towards the end of 2025.
Questions for forum members
The focus was on questions such as:
- What information is essential for a functioning democracy?
- How do citizens want to be informed?
- What could a media landscape look like if we could completely rethink it?
- How would such a media landscape be financially viable?
Participants were people with different perspectives, based on the diverse population in Baden-Württemberg: men and women, old and young, people from different sized towns, from all four administrative districts, with different educational backgrounds, with or without a history of migration.
On 12 May 2025, 6,640 addresses randomly selected from the population registers were contacted and invited to the citizens' forum. People from Deißlingen, Freiburg, Rheinstetten, Sipplingen, Ulm, Untereisesheim, Weil der Stadt and Waghäusel are taking part.
‘I wanted to contribute my input’
Prospective law student Lena Rößler was immediately motivated to participate when she found the invitation letter in her postbox: ‘Our society is connected to the media every day. And then I wanted to contribute my input a little bit too.’
At 17, Alice Anna Grieser is one of the youngest participants. It is important to her that the group does not immediately agree on everything: ‘I hope that we have a good culture of debate and that we have different opinions, because that's the only way we can move forward. It's only through differences that we can progress.’
Getting involved is important
Getting involved is important, according to Rößler and Grieser. What's more, other opinions broaden your horizons. Even if the rest of the group doesn't support a controversial opinion, it will still be heard and respected, says Lena Rößler.
The forum met in two separate groups. One included all age groups from 16 upwards, the other only included people aged between 16 and 24. At the end, the two forums discussed their results together. They will summarise them in a final recommendation.
Scientific support
The target size for each group was 32 people. There were also eight additional places in each group - because something always comes up. Whether due to relocation or illness: ‘If individual registered participants are unable to attend all of the dates, there will still be a colourful and sufficiently large group of around 30 to 40 people across all forums,’ says the Citizens' Forum website.
With this key, the organisers were following a recommendation from the University of Freiburg, which is providing scientific support for the forum. The team, led by political scientist Prof Dr Uwe Wagschal, is investigating the development of the two different groups, among other things.
Organisation and funding
The Pressestiftung Baden-Württemberg, which organises the Citizens' Forum, is a non-profit self-help organisation. Its sponsors are the Landespressekonferenz (State Press Conference), in which journalists reporting on state politics are organised, the state association of the Deutscher Journalistenverband (German Journalists' Association) and the Verband Deutscher Zeitungsverleger (Association of Southwest German Newspaper Publishers).
The original task of the foundation was to support journalists who fall on hard times through no fault of their own. However, its work has expanded and, following an amendment to its statutes in 2024, it is now also focussing on content-related issues relating to the media and its future.
The Citizens' Forum is financially supported by the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung (Baden-Württemberg Foundation) with 478,000 euros. The foundation was established in 2000 as a state foundation on the initiative of the then Minister President Erwin Teufel (CDU). It has assets totalling around 2.3 billion euros and supports numerous charitable projects every year.
Engagement with results desired
As Managing Director of the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung, Theresia Bauer would like to see a ‘debate about what is being produced’. The results should not be allowed to disappear into a drawer.