East and West German Journalists in Leadership: Perceptions of work conditions, norms and practices

Eckert, S. and Assmann, K. (2023) East and West German Journalists in Leadership: Perceptions of work conditions, norms and practices. DGPuk Yearbook. 1-11 DGPuk (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Publizistik- und Kommunikationswissenschaft) is the German Society for Journalism and Communication Studies

Abstract: We analyzed the representation of women and men in newsroom leadership who were socialized in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) and/or East Germany. As part of a larger project, we summarized findings of 33 in-depth interviews with journalists from eight regional news media in East Germany, two national news media, and two newspapers in Berlin. Themes that arose from a textual analysis of transcripts are childcare, approaches to gender-neutral language, and awareness of ownership and history of leadership. Our study provides empirical evidence for journalists’ sense- making and reflection of their identities and how that matters in their work, centering women, in particular those with GDR/East German socialization and/or migration backgrounds as doubly underrepresented minorities in a profession whose leadership has been dominated by West German men without migration backgrounds.