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[German Version] The organization of radio and television in Germany has been under ¶ state direction since the start of its use as a public medium in 1926. From the beginning, the churches were involved, and pursued conceptually preventive-reactive and positive goals in broadcasting. On the one hand, they tried to oppose undesirable tendencies toward loss of individuality, and superficiality; but it was particularly in warding off socialist ideas, and the influence of the “other” confession, that both Cathol…

[German Version] I. Sociology The press was the earliest of the modern mass media, the technical means of mass communication by which information can be duplicated and distributed to a large number of people (a dispersed public). The term goes back to the printing press, developed in the mid-15th century by J. Gutenberg. For a long time it covered all kinds of printed works, including books, but since the 19th century it has been narrowed to the periodicals press. This is justified insofar as regul…

[German Version] I. Socioeconomics The deregulation of German broadcasting in 1984 added a commercial dimension to Germany’s television programming, which had until then been conceived of in sociocultural terms. Both dimensions are part of the so-called dual broadcasting system (Radio and television): public television networks provide the basic services, finance themselves mostly through fees, and do not operate on a profit-oriented basis; commercial networks provide additional television services,…

[German Version] Media are mass-distributed vehicles of communication whose content reaches a large public. The mass distribution of print media (newspapers, magazines, and other forms of print) and electronic media (radio, television, internet) and their increasing social significance, as well as their influence on how we communicate and spend our free time, demands that the media be given their ethical place between freedom and responsibility. This need is addressed by the per-¶ spectives of scholarly reflection on media ethics: the normatively oriented individual…

[English Version] . Die Organisation des Rundfunks in Deutschland ist seit Beginn seiner publizistischen Nutzung (1926) unter staatl. Federführung. Die Kirchen engagierten sich von Anfang an und verfolgten im Rundfunk konzeptionell präventiv-reaktive und positive Ziele. Einerseits versuchten sie, mißliebigen Tendenzen zur Vermassung und Verflachung entgegenzutreten. Bes. aber war es die Abwehr sozialistischen Gedankenguts und des Einflusses der jeweils anderen Konfession, welche die kath. wie ev. …

[English Version] I. Soziologisch Die P. ist das älteste der neuzeitlichen Massenmedien, jener technischen Mittel zur Massenkommunikation, durch die Mitteilungen vervielfältigt und an eine große Zahl von Menschen (disperses Publikum) verbreitet werden können. Der Begriff geht zurück auf die von J. Gutenberg Mitte des 15.Jh. entwickelte Druckerpresse. Während darunter lange Zeit alle Arten von Druckwerken (auch Bücher) gefaßt wurden, hat sich der Begriff seit dem 19.Jh. auf die periodische P. vereng…