I am Associate Professor of Cultural History at Utrecht University and a specialist in modern German history. As a trained reporter, my particular interest lies in the relationship between media, culture and society during the country’s turbulent twentieth century.
My research focuses on the transformational periods that mark the beginning and the end of that period: the Weimar Republic, the country’s first democracy that was established after its disastrous defeat in the First World War, and the years after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, when newly reunified Germany struggled to find its place in a post-Cold War world. Both periods are characterized by political revolutions and extensive sociocultural transformations; they are also defined by profound changes in the media landscape. After 1918, radio appeared as the first electronic mass medium, alongside changes in established media, such as the introduction of sound film and illustrated magazines. In the 1990s, the internet developed from an expert technology into a mass medium used by millions. In my work, I am exploring these transformational periods in their broad transnational contexts. Read the rest of this entry »
Jochen Hung 