Letter to the German Press, by Jay Rosen

I have been circulating among you since the first day of June, asking strange questions. Now it is time for me to tell you what I learned about your institution, and its current predicament.

My research project for the summer was to answer this question: What is German pressthink, and how does it differ from the American kind? (I had a fellowship at the Bosch Foundation that allowed me to do that, while living in Berlin.) „Pressthink“ is a term I invented, so don’t try to look it up. It means the common sense of the journalism profession, the way your occupation „thinks“ about its task. But also the ideas German society has about what a free press is for.