First, my name: It is Mandy Tröger. I was born and raised in East Berlin. Because I have lived in several countries, you may also find my name spelled Mandy Troeger or Mandy Troger. I am still the same person.
I am an Associate Professor of Media and Communication Studies and a Wallenberg Academy Fellow at Södertörn University in Stockholm, Sweden. I am also an affiliate of the Media, Inequality & Change (MIC) Center at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States.
My research focuses on media and communication history, critical theory, and the transformation of media industries and communication systems. My forthcoming book examines the post-socialist privatization of newspapers in East Germany and its longterm consequences for press freedom in Germany. My current projects explore the militarization of communications, and transformations brought about by AI: As part of the Human Futures Workshop series, I critically investigate the political economy of AI. Through my Wallenberg Academy Fellowship, I research NATO’s communication history and its impact on contemporary communication infrastructures. As a public author and speaker, I regularly address issues related to media history, communication freedom, digital surveillance and structural diversity.
Since 2017, I have been a member of the organizing committee of the Network for Critical Communications Research (krikowi), and since 2022, I have held a leadership position in the Political Economy Section of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). In 2024, I joined the editorial board of Journalism Research (Journalistik), a bilingual academic journal dedicated to journalism studies.