Democracy and Media in Europe: A Discursive-Material Approach

"Media and Politics in New Democracies" edited by Jan Zielonka emerged as a result of the Oxford-based research project Media and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe (MDCEE). The book featuring contributions from a global team of authors brings in new models, perspectives and conceptual frameworks to the study of media and politics in Central and Eastern Europe and beyond.

Central European Journal of Communication, 2016

Th is book is a much needed contribution to the study of media and media change in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It focuses on the relationship between the media and politics, and seeks to overcome the Anglo-American bias characteristic in both analyses of media-politics in the non-Western world, and in the study of the transformation of media systems in post-communist Europe. Th e need to de-Westernize media studies in the new European democracies has been repeatedly articulated in the literature ever since the fi rst decade of the post-communist transformations (see e.g., Sparks, 2000; Lauk, 2015). In the 2010s there appeared several valuable collections that contributed signifi cantly to this task (

2006

NEW TERMS FOR THE CLOSE OBSERVATION OF LOCAL POLITICS Marja Åkerström Contact: marja. akerstrom@ home. se There is a vision, rendered slightly simplified here, about a growing and evolving participating and/or deliberative democracy that connects to the ...

Przegląd Politologiczny, 2016

The political changes which occurred in Central and Eastern Europe in the last decade of the 20 th century resulted in introducing democratic systems to replace authoritarian regimes. The political transformation in the region affected also freedom of speech and leeway for the media. The transformation was of an evolutionary nature, preceded by discussions and disputes over the future form of the media. At the initial stage of the changes, strict state control was required, as the government was responsible for the success of the democratic changes. Following the overthrow of the authoritarian regimes, a need emerged for sorting out the legal and institutional basis of a free media intended to be established on the basis of state-owned media, fully controlled by the political authorities and in fact assuming a single role, namely that of a propaganda machine. Normative theories of the media have become the starting point, as a collection of ideas and postulates stating that the media's mode of operation should facilitate socially desirable values. Discussions of the legal, institutional, functional as well as personal solutions related to the mass media in the new democracies referred to observations and agreements among researchers who came from systems with long democratic traditions. This paper revolves around the relation between the media and democracy, and argues that the theory of the media's social responsibility and the democratic-participant theory were the major source of inspiration for the participants of the debates about the future form of the mass media in the emerging democracies. It is worth noticing that these theories represent not only slightly different opinions on the role of the media in a democracy but they also reflect the differences in understanding the essence of democracy.

The conflicts at the core of the Eurocrisis increasingly reflect competing world views and ideologies that are difficult to reconcile. Crucially, the gulf between what is economically required and what is socially and democratically acceptable is widening. Central to the crisis, both in terms of offering core mediating capacities and of providing the public stage for the crisis conflicts, are the EU media spheres- new and old media, offline and online, news and social. We approach the complex relationship between the crisis in the EU, media and democracy from three interrelated perspectives: 1) media as the legal and institutional guarantee of free speech and information, 2) media as the primary arena of public opinion, and 3) media as the facilitator of civic engagement. Drawing on normative and empirical research, we first collect evidence for the direct effects of crisis on media institutions and their functioning in democracy. We subsequently analyze the politics of public disco...

T he central theme of Mauro Porto's analysis is the political role of the media in contexts of democratic transition. His reflection is anchored in a case study of the Globo Television Network, a prominent nationwide network usually referred to as TV Globo. It is interesting to note that the history of theories on political communication runs jointly with the history of the rise of representative democracies. But lacunas still exist in the interface between communication and democracy, and the contributions of Porto's book are significant.

Medijske Studije, 2015

This article seeks to compile an empirically-based understanding of the role of media in countries in transition. The study focuses on the processes of political socialization, behaviour and accountability, and gives examples from three regions: Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East/North Africa region. We draw on some of the major works relevant to the study of mass media in these transitional contexts with the aim of discerning emergent theories available to the study of media and democratisation. While aware of the limitations posed by the nature and scope of the sample of the studies reviewed, we do identify and discuss some of the potentially key obstacles to theory-building and propose some alternative paths of enquiry.

Isara solutions, 2023

Media and democracy have always been closely linked, with media playing a vital role in promoting democracy by providing citizens with access to information and the ability to participate in the democratic process. However, in recent years, the boundaries between media and democracy have started to blur, creating new challenges for policymakers and stakeholders. This literature review examines the relationship between media and democracy and explores the ways in which the boundaries between the two have become less distinct. The methodology involved a comprehensive review of relevant literature on the subject, including ten studies that were selected based on their relevance, publication date, and academic rigor. The results of this study highlight the importance of addressing the challenges posed by the fading boundaries between media and democracy.

Javnost the Public, 2001

The differences within and between Western and Eastern democracies are so significant that the concept of multiple democracies is proposed. To most of the developing world, democratisation is transculturation a process by which Western democracy is transformed for self-aggrandisement. In the age of globalisation, the media are potentially important sources of international and domestic referencing. Media and democratisation are mutually reinforcing, one being constituted by the other. The roles of the media in a society are very much defined by its mode of media control, which varies mainly with its power structure. With concentrated power, the media tend to demote democracy; the opposite is true when equity reigns. Based on a mixed use of inducements and constraints in media control, four modes of state-press relationships are identified: laissez faire, repression, incorporation and co-optation. Each ideal type entails certain media roles that have important implications for democratisation. Media can perform both positive and negative functions in regard to democracy, depending on the prevailing mode of power distribution and specific social and organisational contexts. Each mode of media control and the corresponding media roles may shift as power is restructured. Media usually assume a more emancipatory role as the power structure becomes more decentralised.

PATHOLOGIES AND DYSFUNCTIONS OF DEMOCRACY IN THE MEDIA CONTEXT - 2ND VOLUME by João Carlos Correia, Anabela Gradim and Ricardo Morais Collection: LabCom Books Year of edition: 2020 ISBN: 978-989-654-648-9, 2020

Democracy and political practices are suffering a major shift. Political participation and deliberation take place in the context of strategically manipulated information. Opportunities to mobilize data, in order to reinforce manifestations of panic or alarm, are becoming more evident. Concepts such as "information", "agenda-setting " and "participation" are being challenged today by an almost belligerent mobilization of media resources. Recent developments on the recognition of women’s rights and promotion of new affirmative policies intended to improve gender equality coincides with an ever-increasing controversy around the concept of "political correctness". At the same time, while affirmations concerning human dignity appears to be progressively incorporated in political discourse, phenomena such as xenophobia, misogyny, racism, cultural, racial and ethnic confrontation, and, at the limit, the proliferation of genocides, rise to a previously unimaginable proportion and extent. Emphasis was placed on empirical and theoretical works involving relatively recent political debates, such as the creation of the "left majority" (or "geringonça") in Portugal; the Brexit; the Brazilian process; the American elections; the debates on the political correctness, the emergence of illiberal democracies and the political impact of migratory fluxes. Index Part 2 - Leadership, transgression, manipulation and new political campaigns - 9 Deliberative framings and the constitution of “Geringonça”: from media frames to readers’ comments. The case of “Observador” - 11 João Carlos Correia & Ricardo Morais Political communication and electoral strategy in Donald Trump´s Campaign - 37 José Antonio Abreu Colombri The Performance of Power and Citizenship: David Cameron meets the people in the 2016 Brexit campaign - 61 Peter Lunt Hungarian media policy 2010 – 2018: the illiberal shift - 81 Monika Metykova The agri is tech, the agri is pop, the agri is politics: the “rural world” and the rise of the agripolitician in Brazil - 97 Pedro Pinto Oliveira Part 3 - Identities and life politics in a hyper-mediated society - 113 Dystopian fiction as a means of impacting reality and initiating civic commitment among fans: “The Handmaid’s Tale” series case - 115 Marine Malet Australia’s immigration policy and the scapegoating of Lebanese migrants - 127 Mehal Krayem & Judith Betts The construction of feminine, technofeminism and technological paradox - 145 Êmili Adami Rossetti & Renata Loureiro Frade Educational Superavit: Human rights versus Education Policies - 159 Ana S. Moura, João Seixas, M. Natália D. S. Cordeiro & João Barreiros Aylan Kurdi as the awakening image of the refugee crisis:the framework of the Iberian press - 173 Rafael Mangana