
Gerd G. Kopper
Gerd G. Kopper, took his M.A. at Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind. (major: Journalism, minors: Sociology; History). He has served as lecturer in Further Training Programmes for journalists from Third World countries at Berlin since 1965. He has postgraduate studies in visual history and photography in Paris (CNRS Sociology). Graduate programme in communication science at Free University of Berlin; Dr. phil. in 1967.
Gerd was a permanent consultant during founding phase of "Centre for Educational Research and Innovation in Higher Education" (CERI) of the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD), stationed at Paris (Director: James R. Gass). Director Strategic Planning, Bertelsmann Publishing, 1970-1971. He is a member of Government sponsored Programme for German-Japanese Economic Relations (incl.Japanese language studies) 1972-1974.
He is Chair of Policy, Law and Economics of Mass Media, University of Dortmund (1978 - 2006), co-founder for the establishment of first university based Journalism Institute in Germany, and a member of German Federal Commission on Broadcasting Financing (KEF) (1988-1996). His focus is on the development of and cultural economics of visual media within all relevant spheres, like international journalism, press laws, media competition regulations, media economics, communication technology, visual systems development.
He is the founder and director of the not-for profit "Erich-Brost-Institute of Journalism in Europe" in 1991 at Dortmund. This Institute developed innovative European research programmes of international dimensions, focusing on "international journalism cultures", especially, of interdisciplinary scope, thus, to include technology development, the arts, digitisation in all its aspects.
He is a member and director of a number of multinational long-term research projects within these fields, e.g. "Changing Media - Changing Europe" (European Science Foundation; more than fifty collaborators); COST A20 (European Union; more than fifteen cooperating European Universities); AIM (Adequate Information Management in Europe - 6th Research Framework Programme of the European Union; 11 country studies).