Knowledge Transfer, Consultation and Services

Academic and scholarly research forms the core of the Institute’s work. Additionally, the transfer between research and praxis is a primary concern. In communicating research results, it therefore uses the entire range of media for communicating research as well as forms of address tailored to wider or more specialised audiences. To these belong events (discussions, short seminars or workshops etc.) as well as short reports and expert commentaries.

The Institute’s permanent services include the library and the research journal “Medien & Kommunikationswissenschaft” [Media and Communication Studies]. The Institute’s website forms a portal to the most recent information on current research activity, publications and events.

The following examples demonstrate the relevance of the Institute’s work during the reference period for stakeholders in politics, the economy and civil society.

Transfer to Media Politics and Practice

Many of the Institute’s projects already have by dint of their devising a – to a varying extent pronounced – element of transfer function; this becomes clear, for instance, with the activities surrounding the internet as a “key medium” and the work on the protection of young persons from harmful media. As examples of the Institute’s efforts to contribute to resolving problems in the area of society it observes, the following topics should be mentioned, where the Institute has achieved extensive transfer and service performance in 2009/2010.

Adapting Media Regulation to Communication on the Internet

As a technical platform where widely differing – medial and non-medial – offers can be found, the internet exerts pressure on media regulation in various areas. The Institute supports media politics with expert opinions on finding solutions to the questions bound up with that situation, for instance, through the following activities:

• The research opinion on the communications and media report of the Federal Government already provided grounds for refining knowledge about changes in public communication for the political discussion. The project “Key Medium Internet?” continued in depth investigation of this during the period of the report, once again for the Federal Parliament.
• In the role of specialist consultant, W. Schulz is a member of the commission of enquiry, “The Internet and the digital Society” established in April 2010. The commission of enquiry intends to look into the chances and challenges of the “digital society” in the next two-and-a-half years.
• In addition, our staff take part in various formal and informal discussion groups, such as, for instance, “Media and the Sea” at the State Chancellery of Schleswig-Holstein on 29 April 2010.

Protection of Minors from Harmful Media

The Institute has already evaluated the system of protection of young persons from harmful media in 2007/2008 and essentially confirmed its effectiveness in the process, but also pointed to numerous areas, where there is room for optimisation. The findings were discussed at federal and state level; at the end of 2009, the federal states finally devised an amendment to the interstate treaty on the protection of minors from harmful media, which, however, caused and still causes controversial discussion in the public sphere. The Institute continued to be involved in the process after the evaluation through the following measures, above all:

• participation in hearings, for instance, on the invitation from the State Chancellery of Rhineland-Pfalz on 27 January 2010, or written opinions, as in response to the invitation to a hearing by the responsible committee in the parliament of Saxony-Anhalt;
• cooperative contribution to the round-table, “Programmes for the Protection of Minors”, convened by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (here H.-E. Hanten).
• panel discussions, as, for instance, W. Schulz’s contribution at the conference on the protection of minors in the media staged by the ARD, the ZDF, as well as the EKD and the Conference of Catholic Bishops on 26/27 April 2010 at the NDR in Hamburg, or S. Dreyer’s contribution to the PolitCamp on 20 March in Berlin.
• various talks, such as, for instance “Vernetzt oder verfangen in virtuellen Welten. Chancen, Risiken und Nebenwirkungen der Onlinennutzung” [Connected or Entangled in Virtual Worlds. Chances, Risks and Side Effects of Online Usage], lecture by C. Lampert at the conference of the working group Kinder- und Jugendmedienschutz Hamburg e.V. “In virtuellen Welten unterwegs – Kompetenzen und Risiken für Kinder und Jugendliche” in Hamburg on 24 February 2010.
• “Wenn ich nach Hause komme, gehe ich erst einmal ins Internet. Chancen und Risiken der Onlinenutzung als Herausforderungen für die Schule” [When I come Home, I check the Internet first. Opportunities and Risks of Online Use as Challenges for Schools], lecture by C. Lampert at the conference “Das Ende der Kreidezeit. Ne(x)t Generation learning” [The End of the Age of Chalk. Ne(x)t Generation Learning] at the Landesinstitut für Lehrerbildung und Schulentwicklung (LI) in Hamburg on 17 May 2009.

Going beyond the national debate, the Institute brings its expertise to deliberations centering on the challenges and options to realising supranational labelling systems. Under the umbrella of the Media Authority of Northrhine-Westphalia (LfM), international experts have developed an initiative for a global labelling-platform over the last 18 months. Alongside new forms of self-classifications, it also proposes building on the extensive knowledge already existing in the national classification bureaux.

• “Jugendmedienschutz zwischen Recht und Nationalgesellschaften: Über die Fülle der kulturellen Hintergründe und regulatorischen Entwicklungspfade in den EU-Staaten” [Media Protection of Minors between Law and National Societies: On the Abundance of Cultural Backgrounds and Regulatory Paths in EU Countries], lecture by S. Dreyer in the context of the event “Jugendmedienschutz bei Onlinespielen: Zwischen kultureller Vielfalt und nationalen Besonderheiten” at the Medientreffpunkt Mitteldeutschland on 4 May 2010.
• “Power, Decisions and Knowledge: How labeling input/output will show to be the driving force in all supranational labelling”, lecture by S. Dreyer at the 21st Transatlantic Dialogue of the State Media Authority in Düsseldorf on 11 March 2010.
• “There‘s a Train A-coming: Challenges in Implementing a Global Rating System”, lecture by S. Dreyer at the 19th Transatlantic Dialogue during the medienforum.nrw in Cologne on 23 June 2009.
• “Labelling Online-Games International: (Best) Practice und Entscheidungspfade” [Labelling Online-Games International: (Best) Practice and Pathways for Decisions], lecture by Stephan Dreyer at the 16th Transatlantic  Dialogue – “Labeling for Online-Games in the Web 2.0” in Cologne on 7 November 2008.

The consequences for the protection of minors from harmful media of the findings from the Institute’s study on young peoples’ dealings with the social web were also discussed in numerous talks by J.-H. Schmidt, U. Hasebrink und C. Lampert at events for various target-groups from politics, education and society.

Control of Media Concentration

It has been clear for several years that the current system for controlling predominant power to form opinions can also run up against its limits by dint of its focus on television. The Hans Bredow Institute has contributed to grounding the discussion on the control of media concentration in research by

• W. Schulz’s participation in the panel “Media Concentration – Media Diversity” at the specialist conference, “Diversity of Opinion” mounted by the LfM and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) on 29. April 2009, together with the provision of a preparatory report (see also project 5);
• Participation in the survey and workshop of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media on “Identifying and Representing the Media and the Diversity of Media in Germany”.

The Functional Obligations of Public Broadcasting Corporations

With the so-called “Three Step Test”, legislators have established a process intended to make the sovereignty of states compatible with European subsidy regulations. In 2009, the first extensive testing at ARD and ZDF began with an assessment of their programme offering. In this connection, a major debate on quality criteria is underway. The Institute’s expert advice was sought here too:

• a talk by W. Schulz on the basic structures of the testing at a seminar of the Gremienvorsitzendenkonferenz der ARD (Conference of the Chairpersons of ARD Supervisory Boards) on 4 February 2009 and by U. Hasebrink, also at the GVK on 15 December 2009, as well as by both staff members at a workshop of the ZDF-Fernsehrat (ZDF Television Council) on 10 December 2009 on “Quality in the Net”.
• Interdisciplinary workshop of the Ilmenau Technical University and the Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE), the University of Düsseldorf, on the topic of “Public online offerings in the Three Step Test: Stocktaking and Perspectives”. Talk by W. Schulz on the status of “market effects” on 16 October in Hamburg.
• “Nach dem Beihilfekompromiss: Der rechtliche Rahmen für Online-Angebote öffentlich-rechtlicher Rundfunkanstalten” [After the Compromise: The Legal Frame for Online Offerings of Public-Service Broadcasting Stations], lecture by T. Held at the annual conference of the Media Economy Commission of the DGPuK on the topic “Public Value in der Digital- und Internetökonomie” in Hamburg on 13 November 2009.

Reform of Copyright Structures

The Institute has – apart from the extensive work by our Associate Researcher, T. Kreutzer – not to date done much work on copyright law. Now it is becoming, on the one hand, clear in consequence of the reform discussion, that the regulation and governance perspective is gaining significance in this field and on the other, that increasingly the regulatory documentation can only be adequately observed in the overall context. The Institute, therefore, is involving itself increasingly in this reform debate too.

• With the innovation workshop, the Institute has tried out a new form of working, which is completely tailored to devising and assessing options for action for politics. Internal workshops and more open praxis-workshops provide input; an international consultancy-group is expected to provide additional proposals.
• Presentation of deliberations on copyright, for instance, in the association of broadcasting spokespersons on 6 May 2010 in Berlin and at the joint event with the State Media Authority of Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein and the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce on 3. June 2010, “Who is is Making Money Using What Legislation? A Digital Challenge for Producers, Entrepreneurs and Users in Hamburg”.

Data and Personality Protection in Social Media

The increased use of social networks by adolescents is leading to a more intensive need for legal assessments of data as well as personality protection, particularly on the part of institutions for children and young people. The Institute is here demonstrating the status quo as well as the new legal challenges in the context of talks:

• “Unbequem, sperrig, unausweichlich – Über die verfassungsrechtliche Notwendigkeit eines spezifischen Jugenddatenschutzes und seine praktischen Konsequenzen” [Inconvenient, Unwieldy, Inevitable – On the Constitutional Necessity of Specific Youth Data Protections and Its Practical Consequences], lecture by S. Dreyer at the re:publica 2010 in Berlin on 15 April 2010.
• “Ich klicke, also bin ich – Datenschutz und Datensicherheit  in virtuellen Räumen” [I Click, therefore I Am – Data Protection and Data Security in Virtual Environments], lecture by S. Dreyer at the conference “In virtuellen Welten unterwegs. Kompetenzen und Risiken für Kinder und Jugendliche” of the AG Kinder- und Jugendschutz Hamburg e.V. on 24 February 2010.
• “Persönliche Öffentlichkeiten und Privatsphäre” [Personal Public Spheres and Private Sphere], lecture by J. Schmidt at the panel “Datenschutz – Unbekanntes Verbraucherrecht in sozialen Netzwerken?” [Data Protection – Unknown Consumer Right in Social Networks?] at the Verbraucherpolitischer Kongress in Hamm on 18 November 2009.

Changes in Media Use

Among the decisive questions for media politics as well as media praxis are those as to change in people’s dealings with the media in the face of digitalised media environments. Alongside its project on the fundamentals of media repertoires, which is located in this area and supported by the DFG, the Institute is devising synopses of the existing status of international research in direct cooperation with media firms and other institutions from the media sector and it is conducting discussions of the resulting perspectives. Accordingly, the Institute has produced an expert opinion for the ZDF in 2009 to investigate the representative forms of and points of contact between linear and non-linear television. The results of this research have fed into various symposia, workshops and further training events in several institutions.

Transfer Abroad

The Institute’s expertise is increasingly in demand abroad. In this context, we are dealing above all with questions as to the role of the media in the process of democratisation, but also with the regulatory reaction to media convergence. Here the Institute has  – alongside the naturally close contacts to other European states – emphasised the Asian-Pacific region.

• a talk by W. Schulz on “Democracy and Media” in the Senate, the Upper House of the Thai Parliament on 28 May 2009 in Bangkok;
• W. Schulz’s participation in a workshop at the Thai public service broadcaster, ThaiPBS, on 28 May 2009 in Bangkok;
• talks by W. Schulz and S. Heilmann on the occasion of the seminar, “Creating an Enabling Regulatory Framework for Community Radio”, at the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) on 20 November 2009 in Bangkok;
• a talk by W. Schulz on “Incentive based Regulation” at the Australian Communications and Media Authority on 24 February 2010 in Sydney;
• a specialist discussion with S. Heilmann on online activities of public broadcasters on 3 March 2010 at the ABC in Sydney;
• several discussions with researchers from South Korea (for instance, with representatives of the Korea Press Foundation), where the introduction of regulations to prevent predominant power over opinion formation is being planned and will borrow in certain areas from the German system.

In this connection, the Institute is participating in the discussion about international communication structures through the membership of W. Schulz in the specialist committee on information and communication of the German UNESCO commission. 

Transfer to Other Social Groups

The Hans Bredow Institute seeks to make its research results productive not just for media politics and praxis but also for other social groups. We, therefore, also address a wider public sphere, with the following events and publications, among others.

Digital Games and Online Worlds

Computer games represent a branch of business, which is gaining more and more significance thanks to the increased use of games. The discussion of the possible effects of computer games on their users continues to figure in the public sphere. The Hans Bredow Institute has combined its activities into a research focus on the topic, “Digital games and online worlds”, where expertise in this research area is to be amassed and passed on to interested parties. Projects appropriate to the topic form the basis here, for instance, on the evaluation of the protection of young persons from harmful media, particularly in the area of video and computer games, as well as on the excessive use of computer games. Going beyond this, the Institute has contributed to a better understanding of the new “medium” by

• the participation of U. Hasebrink in the specialist hearing on computer games’ potential for dependence and addiction mounted by the states of Lower Saxony and Northrhine-Westphalia on 8 June 2009 in Hanover;
• devising the content of and organising the Games Convention Online Conference 2009. The first online international dialogue conference on online-, browser- und mobile-games enabled a productive exchange of viewpoints, insights and assumptions between research, industry and politics. The Institute is supporting the Games Convention Online 2010 as regards its contents in 2010 too.

Event Series “Nachgedacht – Geisteswissen­schaften in Hamburg” [Due Consideration – Humanities in Hamburg]

In the year of significant anniversaries constitutionally, the Institute participated in the event series “Nachgedacht – 60 Jahre Grundgesetz” [Due Consideration – 60 Years of Basic Law]. From 24 March to 19 May 2009, the series was dedicated its five evenings to legal, social and political dimensions of the Basic Law as well as the way it was received in the arts.

The Hans Bredow Institute organised the third evening of the series: Professor Dr. Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem, until 2008 a judge at the Federal Constitutional Court and honorary member of the Institute’s board, joined Wolfgang Schulz, director of the Hans Bredow Institute in providing insight into the work of the Federal Constitutional Court on the issue of the freedom of opinion, as guaranteed by Article 5 of the Basic Law, and by reference to verdicts of the Federal Constitutional Court on freedom of opinion, they demonstrated how a constitution “learns”.

Information about the individual topics, dates and lecturers as well as about participating institutions can be found at www.nachgedacht-hamburg.de.

Alongside the Institute, participating institutions were the Academy of Sciences in Hamburg, Bucerius Law School, the Hamburg Institute for Social Studies, the State and University Library Carl von Ossietzky as well as the ZEIT Foundation Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius.

The events were free of charge and open to the public.

Media Socialisation and Media Competence

Networking and the transfer of research insights beyond specialist circles are crucially important in this topic area too. C. Lampert, J.-H. Schmidt and U. Hasebrink have carried out a large number of talks and further education events in the most varied institutional contexts, particularly in connection with the projects EU Kids Online and Growing up with the Social Web. Examples of this are:

• “Lagerfeuer der Zukunft – Wer fesselt die Digital Natives?” [Camp Fire of the Future – Who Captures Digital Natives?], lecture by U. Hasebrink and head of a panel at the Media Congress in Stuttgart on 3 May 2010;
• “Das Social Web im Alltag Jugendlicher” [The Social Web in the Everyday Life of Young People], lecture by U. Hasebrink at the Forum Kommunikationskultur of the GMK “Stream your life!?” in Berlin on 21 November 2009 (with I. Paus-Hasebrink);
• “Heranwachsen mit dem Social Web. Zur Rolle von Web 2.0-Angeboten im Alltag von Jugendlichen und jungen Erwachsenen” [Growing up with the Social Web. On the Role of Web 2.0 Offerings in the Everyday Life of Young People], lecture by U. Hasebrink at the Medienpädagogische Fachtagung of the Media Authority North Rhine Westphalia (LfM) in Dusseldorf on 23 September 2009 (with I. Paus-Hasebrink);
• “Die Nutzung sozialer Netzwerke im Internet durch Jugendliche” [The Use of Social Networks in the Internet by Young People], lecture by U. Hasebrink at the conference of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung “In Netzen gefangen?! Jugendliche in virtuellen communities” [Caught in Nets?! Young People in Virtual Communities] in Berlin on 16 September 2009.
• “EU Kids Online. Ergebnisse eines europäischen Forschungsverbundes zum sicheren Umgang mit dem Internet” [EU Kids Online. Results from a European Research Network on Dealing with the Internet Safely], presentation at the NRW Medienforum in Düsseldorf on 24 June 2009.
• “Das Web 2.0 und seine Bedeutung für die politische Bildung” [The Web 2.0 and its Meaning for Political Education], lecture by J.-H. Schmidt at the Roundtable of the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung in Berlin on 27 May 2009;
• “Neue Öffentlichkeiten im Social Web” [New Public Spheres in the Social Web], lecture by J.-H. Schmidt at the conference “User-ignored Content. Journalismus für die Generation Internet” [User-ignored Content. Journalism for the Generation Internet] of the Gemeinschaftswerks der Evangelischen Publizistik, the Media Commissioner of the Protestant Church in Germany and the Hessischer Rundfunk in Frankfurt on 25 June 2009;
• “Das Internet. Bestandsaufnahme, Praktiken und Konsequenzen” [The Internet. Inventory, Practices and Consequences], lecture by J. Schmidt at the symposium “Das Zeitalter des Internets bricht gerade erst an – ein Blick in die Zukunft” [The Age of the Internet is only Dawning – a Look into the Future] of the Evangelischen Akademie im Rheinland in Bonn on 7 November 2009.
• “Ich bin drin. Heranwachsen mit dem Social Web” [I'm in there. Growing up with the Social Web], lecture by J. Schmidt at the “Fachtagung Jugendpastoral” [Symposium Youth Pastoral] of the Bischöfliches Generalvikariat Münster in Gemen on 12 April 2010.

In addition, the Hans Bredow Institute is a co-signatory of the media-pedagogical manifesto “No Education without Media!” together with central media-pedagogical institutions, namely the “Kommission Medienpädagogik” of the “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Erziehungswissenschaft” [the commission for media pedagogy of the German Society for Education], the “Fachgruppe Medienpädagogik” of the “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Publizistik- und Kommunikationswissenschaft” [specialist group for media-pedagogy of the German Society for Journalism and Communication Studies], the “Gesellschaft für Medienpädagogik und Kommunikationskultur” [Society for Media-Pedagogy and Communication Culture] (GMK), as well as the “JFF- Institut für Medienpädagogik in Forschung und Praxis” [Institute for Media-Pedagogy in Research and Praxis]. This manifesto promotes the lasting and sustainable anchoring of media-pedagogy in all areas of education.