First, a quick note about my name: I am Mandy Tröger — I was born and raised in East Berlin. Having lived in different countries, my name may also appear as Mandy Troeger or Mandy Troger. Whatever the spelling, it most likely is still me.
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 transformations 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. I also work as a public author and speaker addressing issues of media and journalism history, media representation and communication freedom.
I value working with others who engage with critical theories across the broader field of media and communications. I do so as a member of the organizing team of the Network for Critical Communications Research (krikowi), Germany, and as co-chair of the Political Economy Section of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). In 2024, I also joined the editorial board of Journalism Research (Journalistik), a bilingual academic journal dedicated to journalism studies. Most recently, I joined Jeff Pooley as co-editor of the Forum Section of the Journal of Communication.