On Western and Eastern Media Systems: Continuities and Discontinuities

Abstract

This chapter aims to discuss the relevant literature related to Mancini and Hallin’s comparative media systems model, taking into account the case of the Eastern European media as well. It is tried to draw the main features of the so-called post-Socialist media markets. After a brief discussion on how media systems change across time and vary across space, the chapter explores to what extent we can add a “post-communist” cluster to the initial Hallin and Mancini’s classification. It is assumed that the post-Socialist transition has deeply changed the social and economic tissue of all ex-Eastern European countries. As the case of media in Eastern Europe reveals even in countries with a shared social political past, there is still ground for specificities to be flourished that eventually will lead to different paths of media market development. It is argued that even if we witness the triumph of certain general tendencies of what is described as the consolidation of media market globalization, this process could not be understood in its full potentials, without taking into consideration how the political, cultural, and economic “legacy” of each European member state.