SPD on culture and media

The SPD regards video games as an important digital art form and wants to open media funding to them. Digital art is to receive the same protection and support as offline art.

The SPD sees video games as art. The state should support making video games. Parents should be able to learn more about video games. Esports should get support too.

The state is to offer media literacy programs on video games, including for parents. People who practice esports are to receive support. New forms of cultural expression online are to be treated the same as art offline.

The SPD wants better working conditions and social protection for people working in culture. State subsidies are to be tied to collective wage agreements, and minimum fees at theaters are to rise. The platform points to problems that became visible during the COVID-19 pandemic.

People working in culture should have better jobs. The lowest pay at theaters should go up. The state should give more money when wages rise. Artists without a steady job should be better protected.

The approach includes covering negotiated wage increases, exhibition fees, and grant programs. State subsidies to the eight municipal theaters and the Göttingen Symphony Orchestra are to follow the respective collective agreements by contract. Solo self-employed workers and those in temporary or precarious jobs are to get fair social protection. To help combine work and family, the SPD wants to develop solutions with associations and examine how contractual commitments can be extended.

The SPD wants a broad, diverse, and accessible range of cultural offerings across the state. State cultural institutions are to be preserved and renovated, and music schools, independent theaters, and sociocultural centers are to receive more support.

Culture should be open to everyone. The SPD wants to keep the state's museums, libraries and theaters. Old buildings should be renewed. Music schools should get more money from the state. Children from poor families should be able to take part too.

The investment backlog at state museums, state libraries, the state archive, and the state theaters is to be reduced. Venue funding for independent theaters is to be made permanent and expanded, and the digitization of libraries will continue. Public and nonprofit music schools are to receive more state money and standard jobs with social insurance coverage. Partnerships with all-day schools and sociocultural centers will be supported. A cultural dialogue is to be launched, and the Culture Promotion Act will be reviewed and updated in a participatory process.

The SPD commits to independent media and wants to secure Bürgermedien (community media) for the long term and set them up where none exist. The background is the difficulty of maintaining quality regional reporting. The idea of a European media platform is supported.

Free media are important for democracy. The SPD wants to secure community media. These are local stations where citizens make the programs. New ones should be set up where there are none. The SPD also backs a European media platform.

The platform calls free and independent media an essential part of democracy. It sees problems in maintaining high-quality regional reporting and wants to address them strategically. The SPD regards community media as increasingly important for local cohesion. In view of the opportunities and risks of new media, it favors the idea of a media platform at the European level.