The internet is transforming the media landscape. Polarisation and disinformation are the consequences. In Baden-Württemberg, a Citizens' Forum therefore developed proposals for a sustainable media landscape between June and October 2025. On 17 January 2026, the final report containing a total of 44 recommendations was presented to State Parliament President Muhterem Aras and members of the media.
Among other things, the mini-public recommends a social media ban for children up to the age of ten, and smartphones should generally be banned from grades one to four. In grades 5 to 7, there should be transitional use to learn how to use smartphones responsibly. From Year 8 onwards, conscious use should continue to be encouraged and the device should also be used as a teaching aid. Trained staff should supervise this. Age should be verified by a secure system. According to participants, this was also the clear wish of the younger members of the Citizens' Forum.
Cite and link to sources of information
The work of editors who develop digital content such as texts, videos or podcasts for online platforms was also discussed. The forum expressed the wish that they should explain where they obtained their information and, if possible, link to it.
Another citizen demand is that public service broadcasting should be transparent in its use of licence fees. A European media library should also be created.
Artificial intelligence (AI) should only be used by media professionals as an additional tool, and the use of AI must be clearly labelled. Compliance with relevant European regulations must be ensured.
Germany ticket for media
In view of the rising costs for users, the Citizens' Forum members propose, among other things, a kind of Germany ticket for media, a low-threshold offer for paid media as an association of several publishers. Publishers should also promote and distribute their products even better. Local journalism should receive more support from politicians and should be more closely aligned with the interests of readers, as well as facilitating opportunities for public debate.
State Parliament President Aras said that politicians are interested in what people expect ‘from the media landscape of the future’. The results of the Citizens' Forum are therefore a valuable contribution to democratic discourse. Aras announced that the recommendations would also be debated in the state parliament.
SWR Director General Kai Gniffke said that the participants in the mini-public had identified the critical issues and that these would be addressed. On behalf of the Publishers' Association, its managing director Holger Paesler emphasised that the results showed that private media were supported by society.
Why the Citizens' Forum?
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 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?
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, 6,470 addresses were randomly selected from the population registers and invited to the Citizens' Forum. These included people from Deißlingen, Freiburg, Rheinstetten, Sipplingen, Ulm, Untereisesheim, Weil der Stadt and Waghäusel. A total of 157 interested individuals applied to participate, providing additional information about their educational and migration backgrounds. A weighted random sample was drawn from among the interested individuals, taking into account the criteria of age, gender, location, educational background and migration background.
‘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 from 28 June to 21 September 2025. One group included all age groups from 16 years and above, while the other comprised only people between the ages of 16 and 24. At the final meeting on 18 October 2025, the two forums discussed their findings together and combined them in a final recommendation. The group members were supported in their work by ten experts.
Scientific support
The Department of Political Science at the University of Freiburg provided academic support for the Citizens' Forum. A team led by political scientist Prof. Dr. Uwe Wagschal observed, among other things, the development of the two different groups.
The team also investigated what forms of media use different participants would like to see, what obstacles exist in this regard, and whether perceptions and approaches to solutions differ between young and mixed-age groups. In addition, the extent to which political information behaviour changes as a result of participation in the Citizens' Forum is being analysed. The final report on the accompanying research is expected at the end of March 2026.
Organisation and funding
The Pressestiftung Baden-Württemberg, which organised 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 was 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 was produced’. The results should not be allowed to disappear into a drawer.