Listening

We want to develop new projects, and we begin by listening. The Audience Probe is a six-week workshop process built for exactly that: an invitation to people from civil society organizations, storytellers and other creatives to better understand the needs, feelings, and everyday realities of specific audiences. Instead of starting with a finished format, we listen for quiet signals throughout the process and use them to build the foundation for new stories and formats. We are joined in this by More in Common, who bring their research insights on social groups into practice together with us.

Polarization is more than disagreement.

We often perceive the other side as more uniform and more extreme than it really is. That’s why we begin with two questions: 

How can we help people see one another as people again, despite their different perspectives? 

And how can we develop projects for audiences unfamiliar to us without forcing a consensus? 

What guides us: 

Convictions are closely tied to identity, moral intuition, and personal experience. 

Facts and figures alone don’t create mutual understanding. 

This isn’t about consensus, but about a more nuanced picture of one another. 

Building an audience begins before developing a format.  

Sources that inspire us: Mau, Triggerpunkte (2023) · Haidt, The Righteous Mind (2012/2013) · Sahebi, Verbinden statt spalten (2025) · De Meyer (2025) · Allport (1954) · Pettigrew & Tropp (2006) · Gaertner & Dovidio (2000) · The Enemies Project (2026) 

The Invisible Third

More in Common is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the question of how we can rebuild social cohesion and trust in democracy and in one another. They offer a perspective on our society through six social types, which cluster into three larger groups depending on how strongly they lean toward the common good: the Stabilizers, the Societal Poles, and the Invisible Third. The last of these is the least noticed, the least understood, and at the same time the most promising audience for socially relevant media formats. This group wants more recognition and representation. Their perspectives rarely surface in public debate and are missing from it. To include them, we want to listen and develop together. Not by the bubble, for the bubble.

Source: More in Common Germany, 2026. The division into six societal types and three groups goes back to the foundational study Die andere deutsche Teilung ("The Other German Divide," 2019).

The Audience Probe process

The Audience Probe is an exploratory, qualitative method. It makes visible the subtle, often overlooked behaviors and feelings within social groups that are unfamiliar to us: the “Silent Signals.” By bringing these hidden insights to light, we gain a better understanding of the real needs, emotions, and motivations of the people we want to enter into dialogue with. This becomes the early inspiration for credible storytelling, effective formats, and the right ways to reach an audience. 

Silent signals we listen for: 

unspoken needs and conflicts 

feelings of missing recognition or representation 

trust and distrust toward institutions and media 

relevant language, narratives and triggers 

suitable points of access and forms of participation 

everyday realities and value tensions 

The method follows the approach of Cultural and Design Probes (Gaver et al. 1999; Mattelmäki 2006): the personal encounter comes before format development. 

Proven in public broadcasting.

Finnish broadcaster Yle has used this approach since 2008 for strategic innovation. The insights stay relevant for five to eight years and have guided projects such as the series “Mental” – adapted in Germany as “FREAKS” on funk in 2018. 

A starting point for co-creation

The Audience Probe is a starting point for co-creation with this often invisible audience, bringing together people from civil society organizations with storytellers and other creatives. For the Interactive Media Foundation, we have identified four key outcomes:

Strategic perspective: clarity on how to reach the audiences that matter most to your future. 

Format innovation: fresh, audience-driven ideas become concrete, actionable initiatives. 

Editorial work: finding the narratives, formats, and tones that truly connect. 

Audience relationships: practice in meeting people who may be skeptical or resistant, and finding new ways to connect.

How it works

The entire process is moderated by Raimo Lång, former Head of Content Development at Yle. Workshops and materials are therefore in English, while interviews and diaries are in German. During the diary phase, participants in the Audience Probe are supported by our production management, who stays in direct contact with the informants.

We are planning work phases at our studio in Berlin and remotely from late January to late March, totaling about 10 days.