ABSTRACT
The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the introduction of global capitalism gave rise to a “total reorganization of life, ending up in a privatized, globalised, de-monopolized economy” (Haraszti 1987, 34). Commenting on the importance of research into the transformation of media systems in the region, Sparks argued that “the scope and magnitude of the changes are so great, and the challenge they pose to some of the established ways of thinking about the media so serious, that this kind of work is of pressing importance” (1998, 7). The academic research initially carried out, however, had several limitations in its scope and subject: the press and television were often singled out as key institutions in the process of transformation with the predominance of news and policy-related analysis 1 (Downing, 1996).
