Abstract
The study explores the social background, career stations, working conditions and role-perceptions of journalists in East Germany before the wall came down. Drawing on Bourdieu's field theory as well as on interviews and memoirs, it uses 121 career paths to construct a collective biography of journalists. The findings show that journalism was, indeed, closely tied to the centre of power. The dominance of the first two generations of journalists within the field even intensified its political significance. While both the founding and the “Aufbau” generation developed a political role perception, the young could quickly switch to Western standards after 1989.
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