Out Now: “Menschengemachte Regelwerke und ihre Auslegung: Inkonsistent und willkürlich?“

Symbolic picture for the article. The link opens the image in a large view.
2. June 2025

The essay collection accompanying the 2024 conference “All Rational? The Human Factor in Media Organizations” of DGPuK‘s Media Economics Section has been published open access.

Our PI Svenja Hagenhoff’s article examines the inconsistencies and challenges of regulating the media system in Germany, which result from media- and cultural-political tensions between necessary state intervention and the equally respected autonomy of media stakeholders. The international example of the failing Corona aid for the magazine Lettre International is used as a starting point to describe the conflict situation.

A collection of treatment divergences shows differences in the support and regulation of various media sectors. These include funding through tax money, over-availability and access to media, fixed prices for books in contrast to periodicals and the regulation of mergers in the media sector. It turns out that historical and often arbitrary regulations lead to unequal treatment, which cannot always be objectively justified.

Citation:

Hagenhoff, Svenja (2025): Menschengemachte Regelwerke und ihre Auslegung: Inkonsistent und willkürlich? In: Bjørn von Rimscha, Gianna Ehrlich und Robin Riemann (Hg.): Alles rational? Der menschliche Faktor in Medienorganisationen. Jahrestagung der Fachgruppe Medienökonomie der DGPuK. Mainz, 66-80. https://doi.org/10.21241/ssoar.102667.