In the turgid world of academic writing on communications you have to look hard to find the gems. Here is one of them. A survey of people’s viewing habits in old communist East Germany, the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The gem (IMHO) is the last line, by the way:

Apart from time and income, communication needs are rather shaped by working and living conditions and the complexity of a particular society…

None of the respondents said that they totally trusted the GDR media. Especially those interviewees in touch with the blue-collar industries (factories, the craft sector and trade) gave numerous examples of the way things were glossed over or biased by the media.

However, for most respondents, Western media were not an adequate alternative. Just as advice programmes could not be applied to life in the East, so news and political magazines were only of limited help in managing everyday life. ‘The West did not know anything about the East’, a female worker explained. ‘I watched East German news because I had
to come to terms with daily life here in the GDR.’

From ‘Credibility of media offerings in centrally controlled media systems: a qualitative study based on the example of East Germany’ Michael Meyen and Katja Schwer, Media, Culture & Society, Vol. 29, No. 2, 284-303 (2007)