Dear Readers,
We are delighted to see the growing international interest in our journal and its bilingual concept. When we launched the first issue six years ago, initiated by Horst Pöttker and supported by the publishing house Herbert von Halem, we were guided by the hope that we could complement the range of academic journals and even be of interest to journalists working in the field. We are now confident that this hope was not completely exaggerated – and today we can also announce an expansion of our circle of editors: Mandy Tröger and Gunter Reus are joining our team. Both embody our journal’s aspiration to sharpen the profile of journalism as a discipline and at the same time allow for a variety of topics, research perspectives and methods – preferably with direct references to journalism’s professional practice.
Mandy Tröger is a Walter Benjamin Fellow of the German Research Foundation at the University of Tübingen, Germany, and is known to many for her research into the post-socialist transformation of the East German press and also for her journalistic work, for example as a columnist of the Berlin newspaper Berliner Zeitung. Mandy Tröger has contributed a very topical article to the new issue of our journal: an interview with Kai Hafez, professor at the University of Erfurt, Germany, who criticizes German media coverage of the war in Gaza in our debate section. He argues that the conflict in the Middle East cannot be explained solely through the lens of anti-Semitism. Also, the diversity of Palestinian positions is hardly present in German media. In a second debate piece, William Lafi Youmans, associate professor at George Washington University, USA, discusses the Israeli government’s attempts to control the (international) press and restrict its work.
Like Mandy Tröger, our new co-editor Gunter Reus has a wealth of experience in practical journalism. In academia – as a journalism professor at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, Germany – he has made a name for himself with studies on newspapers’ feature pages and culture sections, among other things. Gunter Reus was editor of the German academic journal Publizistik for twenty years and can now contribute this experience to us. Our journal will also benefit from his rich knowledge of press history. This is already reflected in the new issue: We dedicate two articles to the Austrian journalist Karl Kraus, who was born 150 years ago. Horst Pöttker delivers a »conversation« – an interview montage based on Kraus’ texts – which is not only exciting in its format. Pöttker challenges the controversial publicist and »confronts« him with accusations of political fickleness and spreading anti-Semitic stereotypes. As a supplement, Walter Hömberg recalls the life of the great satirist, journalist, and writer in a reprint.
The new issue also addresses another hot topic: Plagiarism in journalism. In an essay, Klaus Meier reflects on the standards that should apply to journalistic texts. He worked on an investigation for the German national daily Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) to clear up allegations against the deputy editor-in-chief of the SZ, Alexandra Föderl-Schmid.
Last but not least, don’t miss the contributions that open our new issue: Thomas Birkner looks for a way to integrate the theoretical concept of »mediatization« into journalism research. Christina Fleischanderl analyzes how constructive journalism can improve reporting on violence against women.
We look forward to your responses, including ideas for topics and manuscripts, which you can send to: redaktion@journalistik.online. Please also note our Call for Papers on the upcoming special issue topic »Elections«.
We wish you an inspiring reading time!
Tanjev Schultz
Translation: tvs with help from Deepl and colleagues