Dear readers,
Three questions first: Which country bans books in public schools because they allegedly do not conform to moral standards? Which country denies journalists access to press conferences if they do not follow the government’s language rules? The government of which country relies on billionaire tech oligarchs, but cuts off funding to humanitarian organizations, covers newspapers and broadcasters with lawsuits and calls the press »enemy of the people«?
If you are guessing Russia now, you are not wrong, of course. But we were actually thinking of the United States. Because things are not going well for the once protective power of the Western world. With remarkable unscrupulousness, the Trump administration is currently laying the axe to media and communication freedom – only to then demand this fundamental right from others, as it did recently at the Munich Security Conference in February 2025. And it is not just media that are being attacked. Cultural achievements and civil liberties in general are under unprecedented threat in the US. Reason enough for us to look across the Atlantic in this issue of Journalism Research.
In his contribution to the debate, Fred Vultee shows how the social climate can tip over into the inhumane by deliberately irritating the population. For our author from Wayne State University, this is the case when people are overcome by the feeling that all kinds of social problems have reached a state of emergency that can only be countered by rigorous means. Right-wing policies (stopping immigration, expelling foreigners or suppressing gender diversity) then offer themselves as a salvation. However, according to Vultee, the driving force behind this process in the United States are media outlets such as Fox News or social media platforms, which constantly report on negative individual events in a shrill, false or generalized manner – until the idea of a national threat arises.
The »increasing oligarchization of US politics« and the influence of Big Tech on US media and communication are described by Journalism Research editor Mandy Tröger and Hendrik Theine (Linz/University of Pennsylvania). Their analysis is as prudent as it is somber. It analyzes the influence that mega (and »MAGA«) entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk have on journalism and media regulation in Europe. The contribution to the debate leaves no doubt that the Trump administration’s actions threaten the controlling function of journalism and thereby democracy on both sides of the Atlantic. However, Tröger and Theine also outline countermeasures that journalism and communication research could take.
Alfred Cotton and Jeffrey Blevins (University of Cincinnati) take a look at media reporting in the US in the run-up to Donald Trump’s second term in office. In a critical discourse analysis, they show how differently four major daily newspapers portrayed the protests of the »Black Lives Matter« movement following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis – depending on which (online) sources the editorial offices used for their research. The study shows how contradictory media’s interpretations of the riots of summer 2020 were in a nation that was already deeply divided at the time.
In further essays in this first issue of 2025 Teodora Trifonova and Joy Jenkins (University of Missouri) shed light on the research paths and understanding of the roles of Romanian, Bulgarian and Hungarian reporters on the war in Ukraine. Roxane Biller, Seraina Cadonau and Marion Frank (Hamburg Media School) focus on diversity issues in German newspaper editorial offices. They show that there are still too few women, too few people of color and too few young journalists, which has a negative impact on empathetic and adequate reporting. Thomas Hauser takes a more fundamental look at the development of journalism in Germany. In his essay, the former editor-in-chief and publisher of the Badische Zeitung warns that economization and digitalization are endangering the very foundation of journalism. Hauser believes that the former »symbiosis« between journalism and society has been destroyed. Instead, alarmism and denunciation in the news coverage intensifies aggression and hysteria in the political debate. Hauser’s observations draw attention back to Fred Vultee’s analysis of the »culture war« in the US, which closes the full circle of topics in this issue.
Our authors’ contributions remind us – time and time again – of what is important: ensuring diversity, independence and quality of journalism. This is our task as a journal for journalism research, and it is the task of civil society as a whole – especially in times like these.
Yours, Gunter Reus