Kai Hafez is a Chair Professor of International and Comparative Media and Communication Studies at the University of Erfurt, Germany. His research specializations are global and political communication, media and democracy and Islamic-Western relations. He is the author of The Myth of Media Globalizationa and The Political Dimensions of Foreign Reporting (2 vols, in German), the editor of Arab Media - Power and Weakness, Mass Media, Politics and Society in the Middle East, Islam and the West in the Mass Media: Fragmented Images in a Globalizing World, Media Ethics in the Dialogue of Cultures: Journalistic Self-Regulation in Europe, the Arab World, and Muslim Asia and the co-editor of Media and Transformation in Germany and Indonesia: Asymmetrical Comparisons and Perspectives.

Anne Grüne is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Media and Communication Studies at the University of Erfurt, Germany. Her research specializations are globalization and social communication, comparative communication cultures and global popular culture. She is the author of Formatted World Culture? On the Theory and Practice of Global Entertainment Television (in German) and co-editor of Media and Transformation in Germany and Indonesia: Asymmetrical Comparisons and Perspectives.