Demokratischer Wert von Medienpublika

Against the background of the discussions about the normative demands and the reality of democracy, about a decreasing newspaper readership, and about the critical quality of political communication, the authors deal with the question of whether the audiences of the news media possess a specific “public value” by contributing differently to the scope and quality of public discourse. Using the example of the subscribers to a left-liberal German newspaper, die tageszeitung (taz), the authors analyze data from a representative readership survey to assess this public value. In this, the authors focus in particular on attitudes and behaviors relevant to the public sphere and democracy, such as political participation, acceptance of responsibility and public engagement.