ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role of journalists and the mass media and their interaction with social, political, economic, and national change in the Soviet Union, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. Three factors provide an important underpinning for developing a framework to understand the development of the mass media in each country. These factors include the historical experience, both pre-communist and communist, the communist theoretical assumptions about the mass media, and the thoughts and ideas of both politicians and scholars about media roles. The pre-communist historical experience is frequently helpful in defining the course of present journalism and mass communication development. The communist approach to journalism was grafted onto this historical experience. Since the purpose of journalism in a newly communist society was to mobilize people, it soon became clear that journalistic autonomy in this process was to be severely limited. Journalists under the new conditions are defining new roles for themselves.
