Conversion and dismantling in the ÖRR: noise and smoke

Great excitement in Cologne on the Rhine. No, Oliver Pocher did not call for the privatization of WDR. The TV parrot, suffering from a lack of attention, had simply parroted Media Minister of State Wolfram Weimer and meant ZDF. But the well-known media politician Pocher also thinks that there is too much programming on the public broadcasters.

This WDR has just announced that it will shrink. Of the current 600 offers, only 300 should remain, and none of them are guaranteed to be from or with Pocher. After all, the shrinkage also involves a switch to digital with 100 new offers.

Because it's not just at WDR that it's time to get serious about digital. Simply dumping stuff into media libraries isn't enough, shows the latest research from ARD and ZDF. And then there is the matter of dialogue. Sure, “audience dialogue” is now written almost everywhere. But not much of it really resonates with the general public.

At least the situation is better than ten years ago, when dialogue ideas within ARD and also from the WDR leadership at the time were given the cold shoulder. When the MDR, as ARD chairman, proposed the ARDialog platform in 2016, which was supposed to work according to the motto “Just ask us”, it was not able to gain a majority. Which is still very politely put.

Now the message has finally arrived. But ARD and ZDF are still taking a very formal approach to the demon of dialogue. For example, you have just announced a “common format idea for social dialogue”.

We are looking for a “nonfictional cultural format” with a “strong narrative idea that reaches many people and remains in their memory.” It is intended to “bring together beliefs and worlds of life that otherwise rarely really meet,” which is a challenge and could easily become cramped.

Creativity should therefore move along narrow channels because the target group is precisely measured. “The ZDF target groups CC2 and CC3 as well as the ARD-DMT groups Ambitionierte and Neokulturer serve for internal classification.” Applicants have to look up what that is for themselves.

In addition, the format should also “integrate a PSI element that makes its social dimension tangible.” PSI stands for “Public Spaces Incubator”, a research project in which ARD and ZDF, together with other ÖRR broadcasters, are currently developing new forms of dialogue such as “Audience Input”.

“Users can ask questions about a show, an editorial team or individual people” or “leave feedback”. Crazy, it's fatally reminiscent of the ARDialog in English. And whether it works will depend crucially on the “output” of the broadcasters, editorial teams or individuals at ARD and ZDF.

As long as there is no real dialogue, even the best calculated formula is just smoke and mirrors. “Despite major campaigns, only small traces remain that are not yet enough to connect Germany,” says the roommate.