Media Accountability & Media Change

Technological innovations in information and communication are causing wide-ranging structural changes of media systems – a development that also influences the functionality of the media: On the one hand, it enhances the possibilities of media production, e.g. by inviting user participation and thereby contributing to a new diversification of media outlets. On the other hand, several factors – e.g. the online commitment of players from outside the industry, the emigration of parts of the advertising market to other platforms, and a radically transforming media usage marked by free publication offers – lead to a crisis of long-established models in media politics and economics.

Against this background, the research group “media accountability and media change” analyses the actions of multiple players that are concerned with the structural preconditions of a transforming global media landscape: How do recent digitization processes impact on journalistic performance in the newsroom? What do these developments mean from an ethical perspective? How can journalists as well as media managers and policy makers contribute to safeguarding a free and pluralistic media landscape? How do instruments of media regulation and accountability vary at the international level?

The research group combines theoretical, historical and empirical analysis to provide answers to these and similar questions. By reflecting them to concerned stakeholders, it intends to make a contribution to securing the media’s functionality in the long run.