Change in the leadership of the European Institute for Journalism and Communication Research e. V. (EIJK)
The European Institute for Journalism and Communication Research (EIJK) will have new leadership from May: Professor Gabriele Hooffacker, who will serve as Deputy Director of the Institute for Digital Teaching and Learning at HTWK Leipzig until July 2025, succeeds Professor Michael Haller, who has led the research institute as Scientific Director since its foundation in 2003 and is stepping down due to reaching retirement age. From 1994 until his retirement in 2010, he held the Chair of Journalism at the University of Leipzig.
The future Director of the Institute, Prof. Dr Hooffacker, says: “The EIJK is excellently positioned to bring together Leipzig’s vibrant and dynamic media scene with academic research in media and communication studies. I am very much looking forward to this role!”
She will provide the first substantive impetus with the opening event for the Leipzig Media Talks on 29 April 2026 at the Villa Ida Media Campus. At this event, experts from academia and journalism will discuss ‘Strategies against online hate’.
About the person: Prof. Gabriele Hooffacker
Prof. Dr Gabriele Hooffacker, born in Munich in 1959, studied German language and literature, history and economics at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. In 1986, she was awarded her doctorate with a thesis on 17th-century single-sheet prints. During this time, she worked for the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. In 1999, she founded the Munich Academy of Journalism, offering courses and seminars on online journalism, which she headed until 2013; in 2008, she established the Academy of Journalism Foundation. As a journalist, she worked for
online portals, specialist journals and general-interest magazines, and published more than 50 non-fiction books on journalism, the media and the internet.
In 2013, Hooffacker was appointed to the University of Applied Sciences for Technology, Business and Culture (HTWK) in Leipzig. Between 2019 and 2025, she served as Deputy Director of the Institute for Digital Teaching and Learning at HTWK Leipzig, which she co-founded. As Dean of Studies, she oversaw several degree programmes, most recently the new Bachelor’s programme in Media Production. From 2020 to 2025, she was a member of the University Council at HTWK Leipzig.
Gabriele Hooffacker is a member of the German Society for Journalism and Communication Studies and sits on the jury of the Alternative Media Prize. Together with Horst Pöttker and others, she has been editing the open-access journal *Journalistik – Zeitschrift für Journalismusforschung* since 2018. She is the editor of the journalism series *Journalistische Praxis* (Springer VS).
About the Institute
The EIJK was founded in 2003 as the Institute for Practical Journalism Research (IPJ) at the suggestion of the Sparkasse Leipzig Media Foundation by the Chair of Journalism at the University of Leipzig, as a joint project between the University and the Media Foundation, with the support of Sparkassenversicherung Sachsen. Since 2011, it has been an independent, non-profit research centre operating under the umbrella of the Media Foundation.
In 2014, the institute was restructured as the European Institute for Journalism and Communication Research. Since then, it has focused in particular on the role of the media and journalism in Western Europe. Social information structures and processes are examined alongside normative issues relating to media freedom and the independence of journalism. Through interdisciplinary research, empirical studies and practice-oriented projects, the Institute aims to contribute to the international discourse. Its findings are intended to enhance the public’s understanding of the media and to foster constructive discussion of issues relating to the quality of journalism.
The EIJK is organised as a non-profit association, supported by the Media Foundation through the provision of premises at Villa Ida and institutional funding.
(Source: EIJK/Sparkasse Leipzig Media Foundation)
