Media Studies Journal Summer 1995. [antikvár]

Media and DemocracyWHILE THERE IS NEARLY universal agreement that the media play a vital and defining role in democracy everywhere it exists, ironically they are often unpopular. As the hectoring cry of critics goes, "Who elected you anyway?" To which the obvious answer is "no one," backed by the probably accurate assumption that collectively and individually the media would have a hard time winning public approval in an election.At the same time, the media in a democratic system must be credible and reliable lest they lose their influence and authority. And it is usually acknowledged that democracy almost never flourishes without an effective, independent media.As this issue of the Media Studies Journal takes up "Media and Democracy," we do so with the clear recognition that generalizing about the media is often perilous.In the years since the end of the Cold War, as democratic governments have become the order of the day in many former socialist states, and as liberalized regimessome more democratic than othershave appeared in Asia and Latin America, the role of independent news media free from government control has been assumed, if not always carefully defined. Center working visits to some fifty countries in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, East Asia and Latin Americaall professing democracy, though varying widely in what that means and how it is best accomplishedprovide evidence that democracy and freedom of the press have different meanings in countries that are redefining themselves.In the three most visible countries of East Central Europe Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungarynational nuances guide new media laws, the flowering and contraction of new media, what it means to be a journalist and what journalists write about civil society.