GERMANY. Critical junctures in the media transformation process.
Date
2022
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Description
Case Study 2 combines an analysis of key political and social changes with an overview of evolu-tions and possible junctures connected to risks and opportunities in the four domains of interest to the MEDIAdelcom project: Legal and ethical regulation, journalism, media usage and media-related competencies. Overarching trends in the German case include various long-lasting ef-fects of the historical juncture of German reunification as well as internationally widespread issues associated to digitalization, changing patterns of media usage, challenging market condi-tions particularly for print publishers and decreasing trust in the media. While many of these changes can be interpreted as threats to a relatively well-established and balanced media sys-tem, there are also hints of opportunities to be seen. Towards the end of the 20-year time frame, the Covid pandemic and its effects leave a number of open questions, as it is still too early to evaluate the longevity of the risks imposed by the economic and social effects of the disease.