Three key problems for comparative study of post-socialist media systems

Higher Seminar in Media and Communication Studies with Zrinjka Peruško, visiting fellow from the University of Zagreb

Why are the media systems in Central and Eastern Europe different from those in Western Europe? Can divergent media system trajectories observed in the new democracies of post-socialist Europe be singularly explained by the obvious suspect - the previous socialist regime and its (negative) consequences?
There are three key problems for comparing post-socialist media systems: the problem of studying change in media systems, the problem of the periodization of media and social change, and the problem of comparing. Change itself if seldom approached in media systems analyses, and often assumed within evolutionary theories (i.e. modernization). I will argue that we must look into the past for clues to explaining the present. The lack of attention to history and change in media systems studies brings the second problem, how to decide which previous periods are important for the present of post-socialist media systems. Are the same historical periods that shaped western media also important for the European third-wave post-socialist democracies? The last problem is how to compare the past periods of media systems? Is it possible to compare political and economic systems so different as capitalist democracies and socialist autocracies?
The solution will be illustrated with the examples from the study by Peruško, Vozab and Čuvalo (2021) of comparative media change in southeast Europe, where six countries were compared in three historical periods using the set theory approach and the fsQCA analysis to show what configurations of conditions influenced their present day levels of media market development and media freedom.

Zrinjka Peruško is a visiting fellow from the Department of Media and Communication / Faculty of Political Science at the University of Zagreb.

It is possible to participate in the seminar both live on campus or digitally via Zoom. For more information including Zoom link, please contact Saga Hansén (details below)