Prevention of Dominant Influence on Public Opinion

Control of media concentration is a major element in protecting pluralism in the area of private broadcasting. It serves the execution of the requirements of constitutional law, which result from the freedom of broadcasting established by the Basic Law (art. 5 par. 1, sent. 2, Basic Law GG) and the respective jurisdiction of the Federal Constitutional Court.

Current regulations to prevent dominant influence on public opinion focus very much on television. However, other media markets and up- or downstream markets are being considered to determine whether a company acquires a dominant influence on public opinion. Furthermore discussions are focusing on whether monitoring media concentration should be developed towards defining a comprehensive media model. In any case the question arises as to the effects different media have on public and individual opinion-forming. Also important is the question about the status of different media and their up- and downstream mediators such as news agencies, cable providers, search engines, EPGs etc. in opinion-forming.

In order to offer a conclusion on the impact of different media and providers on public and individual opinion-forming, it is necessary to answer the fundamental question as to which processes of opinion-forming should be assessed, how they proceed and how they can be affected.

For these reasons, the prevention of dominant influence on public opinion is a major research area of the Institute. An interdisciplinary study group examines media effects as processes, together with the development of public relations and economic markets, in order to draw conclusions on advancing media-specific concentration control. This approach also considers the scope of providers in opinion-forming. The preparatory work in the legal field includes suggestions from the Institute for the future design of controls over concentration, as these were published in the series from the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in 2006.