Edited by Péter Bajomi-Lázár - Media in third-wave democracies: Southern and Central/Eastern Europe in a Comparative Perspective

MEDIA IN THIRD-WAVE
DEMOCRACIES

Southern and Central/Eastern Europe
in a Comparative Perspective

Edited by
Pter Bajomi-Lzr

Paris & Budapest, 2017

2017 by Pter Bajomi-Lzr, editor

LHarmattan, 2017

Published in 2017 by LHarmattan in collaboration with:

Budapest Business School

Euromedia Research Group

Media Research Foundation

Reviewers

Attila Btorfy

Andrea Buday-Sntha

Andrs Domny

Endre Domonkos

Nikosz Fokasz

Rbert Pintr

Vclav ttka

Davor Marko

Language editor

David Parker

Editorial assistant

Cecilia Filep

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Papers presented at the international conference on Media in Third-Wave Democracies:

Southern and Central/Eastern Europe in a Comparative Perspective, organised by
the Euromedia Research Group at the Budapest Business School on 15 April 2016.

EAN Epub: 978-2-336-84034-5

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Pter Bajomi-Lzr

The Media Systems of Third-Wave Democracies in Southern and in Central/Eastern Europe

After the political transformations in 1989-1991, the countries of Central/Eastern Europe began to adopt, in an effort to join the European Union and under the impact of multinational investments, the political, economic and media institutions and cultures of established Western European democracies. Yet to date the former communist countries still have a long way to go: they evince poorer democratic and economic performance (Rupnik & Zielonka 2013), as well as relatively low levels of media freedom compared with much of the rest of Europe (MDCEE 2010-2012, Freedom House 2015).

In fact, Central/Eastern Europe as a region continues to differ in multiple ways from Western Europe as a region. Key differences include, among other things, a lesser density of population, belated industrialisation and technological development, as well as unconsolidated political systems and more fragile economies in the East as opposed to the West. At a closer look, though, the countries of Central/Eastern Europe also share a number of similarities with some of the Western European countries, and particularly those in the southern part of Europe, including Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. The countries of both Central/Eastern Europe and Southern Europe are listed among third-wave democracies (with the exception of Italy, see Huntington 1991), albeit democratisation of politics and of the media began in the mid-1970s in Southern Europe, as opposed to the late 1980s in Central/Eastern Europe. Importantly, the countries of Central/Eastern Europe had, unlike those of Southern Europe, planned economies prior to the political transformations. And, unlike Southern Europe, Central/Eastern Europe has historically evinced sudden and dramatic political changes and a legacy of foreign domination (Hallin & Mancini 2013), as well as the politicisation of the state by interest groups, successive waves of political instability, and permanently changing legislative frameworks (Mancini 2015).

The idea that third-wave democracies in Southern and in Central/Eastern Europe evince numerous similarities is not a novelty. Students of comparative media research, a.k.a. media systems theory, have discovered parallels between the two regions early on. Most notably, soon after the political transformations of 1989-91 in Central/Eastern Europe, Splichal (1994) observed the Italianisation of the media in the former communist countries, while Wyka (2007) spoke of the Berlusconisation of the media in the new, eastern, member states of the European Union. According to Jakubowicz (2008: 118), contrary to what an encyclopaedia may tell you, post-communist countries appear to be located figuratively at least around the Mediterranean, with similarities between the two regions including late democratisation, weak middle classes, marked social and economic differences, strong Catholicism, a legacy of political patronage and clientelism, the weakness of political parties and the resulting capture of the state and of the media, poor rational-legal authority, as well as the submission of public service broadcasters to political pressure and the resulting bias in their news programmes.

In a more recent paper, Pereira (2015) uses the concept of Mediterrennisation to describe the hypothesis that the young democracies of Central/Eastern Europe follow the path set by the Southern European countries, but suggests that major differences prevail between Italy on the one hand, and Spain and Portugal on the other. He asks the question of whether one had better speak of the Iberianisation of the media in Central/Eastern Europe instead, and identifies a number of similarities between the Iberian model and several former communist countries, including the weakness of press markets and the predominance of television over newspapers, the weakness of public service broadcasters and the dominance of commercial ones, as well as low levels of journalistic professionalisation. He, however, notes that even the Iberian model is a debatable concept, as media and political systems in Spain and in Portugal evince a number of differences. This, of course, leads to a problem central to comparative media studies. The closer we look, the more differences we see between countries, as media systems develop dynamically, and, despite common historical heritages, may take divergent paths (Mungiu-Pippidi 2013). This observation holds particularly for Central/ Eastern Europe, which displays miscellaneity and hybridity, heterogeneity, and even flux as a region (Balcytiene 2013: 32), as the importation of external habits and procedures [from Western Europe] has been deeply influenced by the specific conditions already existing in each country [in Central/Eastern Europe] (Mancini 2015: 33). In terms of political systems, Lewis (2001: 551) notes that Eastern Europe in the broad sense is a large and highly differentiated region. Sksd (2014) uses the concept of multiple post-communisms to describe the current status of media systems in the former communist countries, and argues that some of these countries continue to compare with Western Europe, but other ones especially Hungary and Poland since a neo-authoritarian turn taken in recent years have begun to bear more similarities with non-European countries such as Russia and Turkey.