German Public Television, Social Media and Audience Engagement

This article discusses how social media affect German public service broadcasting (PSB) in terms of PSB’s efforts to reach younger audiences in the digital age. Since social media play a significant role for younger media users, German PSB is attempting to integrate social media into television (commonly referred to as social TV). Social TV has the ability to develop into fairly integrated multiplatform application systems that are driven by the logic of social media. One example is the content network funk, launched by ARD and ZDF in 2016. The content network’s shows demonstrate a changed television-audience relationship within the social media environment. I will analyze this changed television-audience relationship in terms of the way it addresses audience engagement due to its policy of participation.