Reinventing Media (dedikált példány) [antikvár]

The Second Wave of Media Reform in East Central EuropeMiklós Sükösd and Péter Bajomi-LázárPolitical democratization and media democratizationThe political transformation at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s in East Central Europe brought about the liberation of the print press and the broadcast media from under the control and the information monopoly of communist parties. The licensing procedures imposed on newspaper publication were abolished in all of the countries in the region, and more relaxed regulations were introduced for the print press. The majority of the newspaper market was privatized and pluralized as hundreds of new titles tried to make a living. In a new era of economic and political freedom, print publications were mostly threatened by the iron laws of the market. Political pressure on print journalists was moderated and pluralized in some countries, and terminated in others.By contrast, the broadcast media remained at the forefront of attention among the new political elites who were/are reluctant to accept critical media coverage. The major reason for this is the lack of democratic political culture - a relic of the roughly four decades of communist rule. Although public criticism of office holders constitutes a basic feature of democratic systems, post-communist elites, including significant elements of the old, state-socialist nomenklatura, could not easily throw off old habits. Moreover, it was difficult to shake off entrenched standards in which rulers were publicly untouchable and propaganda was considered a major and legitimate force of social transformation. The press, in the official Leninist parlance, served as "the sharpest weapon of the party". Widespread belief in direct media effects, a corresponding irresistible desire to control the media, and a partisan journalistic tradition, constituted the cultural heritage of the new democracies with regard to the media.As the media history of the first years of democratic consolidation in East Central Europe demonstrates (Paletz et al. 1995; Giorgi 1995), the new political elites proved highly creative when it came to exerting pressure on the media. Exploiting media regulation loopholes, removing top media executives and critical editors, appointing loyal managers and journalists, placing informal telephone calls and personal pressures by party and government officials, and with-