Mass Media and the Democratisation of Eastern Europe

Joseph Man Chan

Democracy has been an integral part of the political culture of Western nations where democratic values and institutions are relatively stable and are sometimes taken for granted, forming what may be called mature democracies. Some form of free and independent press system has organically arisen in these democracies. In contrast, democracy is treated only as part of the unfinished modernization project in the developing world. With democratic values and institutions in the making, democratization can take an evolutionary or revolutionary path. Whatever forms democratic struggles may take, the configuration of media is always shaping, and being shaped by, the level of democratization. This observation not only applies to the transitional societies but also to mature democracies.

John D. H. Downing

Four concepts are addressed in the following article, with primary empirical reference to Russia, both in its late Soviet phase and in its first post-Soviet decade. These are: (1) The roles of small scale radical or citizens’ media in democratisation processes. (2) The significance of ethnic representations and voices in media for the democratisation process. (3) The issue of regional as opposed to central or federal power in the overall mix of media and political life. (4) Potential roles of the internet in the democratisation process.

Peter Gross

This article dispels certain assumptions about civil society’s role in the evolution of post-Communist media systems and vice-versa. In the highly politicised, pluralistic, personal, opinionated, and judgmental Eastern European journalism without shared professional standards and a democratic-minded culture not only represents civil society but is civil society.

Junhao Hong

Democratisation in China over the last two decades has probably followed the most twisted path in the world. The economic reform beginning in the late 1970s unwittingly led to a massive political consciousness, and that massive political consciousness in turn led to a high demand for democracy. Nevertheless, in the past 20 years or so the world’s ‘last stronghold’ of communism has had frequent political ups and downs, and each of these ups and downs clearly left either a positive or a negative mark on the course toward democracy.

Antoine Roger Lokongo

In 1997, Laurent Désiré Kabila, long-time Congolese guerrilla fighter, overthrew the dictatorial and kleptomanic regime of Sese Seko Mobutu. Seizing the moment when Congo’s eastern neighbours together with Angola decided to do away with Mobutu (who was harbouring rebel groups fighting against them), Kabila was supported by the USA, which had already decided that Mobutu’s time was up. Military and logistical support was readied and the regime fell on 17 May 1997, less than a year after launching this ‘war of liberation’. The Western media were ecstatic. What happened after that is the topic of the following article, which explores the media’s deafness and blindness to an ongoing and escalating conflict.

David Miller

According to Tony Blair and George Bush respectively, ‘world opinion’ and the ‘collective will of the world’ supported the attack on Afghanistan. Yet analysis of international opinion polls shows that with only three exceptions majorities in all countries polled have opposed the policy of the US and UK governments. Furthermore there have been consistent majorities against the current action in the UK and sizeable numbers of the US population had reservations about the bombing.

Nayia Roussou and Michael Richards

This article is about a successful Cyprus television production – The Coffee Shop – which has been running on three successive channels, for four years now. Cyprus is a good example of television discourses functioning in a climate of transition, from tradition, through modernity to postmodernity; a context where the local meets the global, often producing television which exhibits features of ‘glocalism’. The analysis of the programme traces mythology in its localism, and the ideology it espouses, which blends modernity with postmodernity. Whilst modernist concepts of alienation, self-interest and egocentric relationships are found in its characters, postmodern features are also present in its texts.

Colin Sparks

At the start of the twenty-first century a far greater proportion of the world’s population live in democratic societies than was the case at the start of the twentieth century, or in 1950, or even in 1975. One key experience of the last century has been the transformation of societies in which the majority of people had no control over their government to the present reality in which they have some measure of control. Of course, that control is very limited and often more or less entirely formal, but it nevertheless exists. The relationship between these processes of democratisation and the mass media is therefore an issue that is, or should be, of very general interest to all those who study communication.

Elena Vartanova

The radical change of the media system in post-Soviet Russia has become a revolutionary and innovative process. General societal transformations occurred in a direction more ‘top-down’ than ‘bottom-up,’ were followed by shifts within the old media system. Actual signs of new reality, however, began to emerge in the opposite direction, from ‘bottom-up’ to the top. Newly set-up newspapers, small-sized TV channels, radio stations, or cable companies created a true critical mass that is nowadays influencing a broad political background, and also culture, traditions, values, and lifestyles.

James M. Wall

Reporting of conflict situations seems almost inevitably biased, especially when a superpower wants to carry out a particular policy without public dissent. Controlling the media and silencing opposition voices is a tactic the US government is all too familiar with. Yet speaking up, as the following commentary shows, is the only valid option for those who have serious moral reservations about how the world is run.