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Journalism theory: Developments in German speaking countries

The current theoretical discourse on journalism theories in the German-speaking countries is heterogeneous, multi-dimensional and full of competing ideas – some of them are considerably elaborated. However, a lot of the ongoing theoretical debate has been neglected outside Austria, Germany and Switzerland due to language problems, but also due to the lack of a need to present findings outside a significantly large scientific community in the named countries. Insight is given into the theoretical works on journalism in the German-speaking countries in order to present this rich tradition of thinking to scholars in other parts of the world. The most significant perspectives are structured and described in a synopsis of theories. Simple normative approaches and theories of a middle range, constructivism and systems theories, integrative social theories and cultural studies are some of the competing approaches. They all try to answer one central question: How can we describe journalism from a theoretical point of view?

Keywords: Empiricism, journalism in Germany, social theories, synopsis of theories, systems theory