Der Beitrag der Medienethik zur Diskussion über den öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunk

Ein Literaturbericht

Abstract

The Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) system is rarely discussed in media ethics, despite the fact that both its mission (regulate by the so-called Rundfunkaufträge) and the function of the committees that ensure its accountability (in which various social groups are represented) touch upon ethical questions. Regarding an analysis of these issues in media ethics, we need to delineate which values and criteria are operative in media ethics qua applied ethics. Since media ethics in this sense rarely goes beyond the judgments of the German Constitutional Court (BVerfG), these criteria can be gleaned from work in democratic theory about the public function of mass media and especially news journalism.

The process of digitalization has intensified the debate about the PSB system. Here, media ethics plays a role both in discussions about the mission of PSB as well as about the PSB system’s accountability to the general public. Currently it is difficult to predict how far a reformulation of these aspects through the concept of public value might reach; with regard to the ways in which PSB can be held accountable to the broader public.