Goals, Measures, and Partners
The “Federal Initiative Integration and Television” (BIF) is an initiative founded on the federal level. Its central goals are the following:
- The profound establishment of the topics migration and integration in public and private television. The goal is a more refined and differentiated treatment of these topics, not only in specialized and informational programs, but also and especially in entertainment formats. This is to contribute to a stronger presence of these topics in the public mind and achieve an intensification and solidification of the integration processes in the Federal Republic of Germany.
- A successful integration of migrants in the Federal Republic of Germany is closely connected to an autonomous and self-determined conduct of life within a democratic society. Education and a professional life are the preconditions for personal responsibility and self-determination. Therefore, this project aims at using television to contribute to a communication of positive impulses for education and professional training, especially via TV’s entertainment formats. The medium television is suitable for the communication of these impulses because it plays a central role the process of socialization and enculturation.
- An especially important goal in all of this is the strengthening of the personal responsibility of girls and women. However, this goal can be pursued effectively only if the gender characters as a whole are made an issue and reflected upon. Here, too, entertainment formats can play a decisive role.
- The goals of the Federal Initiative are closely connected to the future chances and opportunities of the medium television as such. So far, the general situation of migrants has hardly been dealt with in depth in film or television projects. The carefully reflected representation of milieus, life-styles, life histories, and not least personal characters promises to be a substantial gain for our TV programs. A stronger integration of audiences with a background in migration into the medium television can be obtained by achieving an identification of the viewers with the contents being presented – a result that would also contribute to a more effective pursuit of the goals the BIF has in mind.
Those goals can be achieved particularly by the following measures:
- Migrants as a whole should get a stronger personal presence in specialized and entertainment formats and should also play exposed and positively valued roles in them.
- Authors and artists with a background in migration are to play a greater role in conception and production.
- We aim at a cooperation of players from film and television, media research, migration research, and representatives of the educational and business sector in order to achieve a profound establishment of the topic of integration as well as the connected problems within the context of film and television.
- The impulses resulting from this dialogue are to be utilized for the development of film and television projects.
- Also necessary is a discussion representatives film colleges and academies about the possibilities for the integration of the topic into the syllabus of these institutions. Furthermore, we strive for the organization and realization of advanced training.
- The realization of concrete objectives as envisaged by the BIF is possible only on the basis of a continuous and timely feedback in the sense of accompanying research. This form of a conjunction of media productions and research is therefore of particular significance.
- Since there are already perennial experiences, particularly outside of Europe, in the field of migration, integration, and media, we also aspire to a close cooperation with international partners.
So far, the following partners – individuals and institutions – have agreed to take part in the BIF or support it:
- Tayfun Bademsoy (actor)
- Hans Beerstecher (deputy chairman of the Division of Communication of the State of Baden-Württemberg LFK)
- Dr. Axel Boetticher (Judge, Federal Supreme Court BGH)
- Jörg Buschka (TV-journalist und film-maker)
- European Assembly of Turkish Academics Baden-Württemberg e.V. (EATA)
- Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Rolf Funck (Professor Emeritus, Institute for Economic Policy Research, University of Karlsruhe)
- Mario Giordano (screenwriter and author of children’s books)
- Michael Jungfleisch (executive director, GAMBIT Film and TV Production GmbH)
- Hussi Kutlucan (actor and film director)
- Multiline Netzwerk für MultiplikatorInnen zur Förderung der Medienkompetenz von Mädchen (Scientific Institute of the Youth Welfare Works Freiburg e.V.)
- Ercan Özcelik (actor)
- Edzard Reuter (former executive chairman of the Daimler-Benz AG)
- TELLUX-Film GmbH München
- Turkish Community in Germany (TGD)
- Dominik Wessely (screenwriter and film director)
- Jale Yoldas (executive secretary, German-Turkish Forum Stuttgart e.V.)
- Feridun Zaimoglu (author and screenwriter)
Other personalities we would like to include in this initiative:
Other representatives of migrants – especially in the cultural area and the business realm – are also invited to join the BIF and to support it in an active or passive way.
In addition, we are trying to win representatives of the television stations of the Federal Republic of Germany as well as of Turkey for the BIF and to integrate them into the current work of the initiative. Moreover, we strive for the participation of representatives of business and the educational sector, as well as for the support of other personalities active in public life.
At present, we are talking to a variety of players in order to win them for a participation.
Initial Financing
The financing of the founding phase was effected with funds from the European Social Fund (ESF) managed by the Ministry for Labor and Social Affairs of Baden-Württemberg.
Organization
The “Federal Initiative Integration and Television” is located at the ZKM | Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe. The “Federal Initiative Integration and Television” was founded at the ZKM on July 15, 2005.
The Information about Goals, Measures and Partners is available here as a PDF file