ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the main issues in the early research on the related areas of journalism and mass media systems studies, and the trajectory of scholarship as it evolved in the 1990–2017 era, its increasingly sophisticated, targeted, and analytical scholarship. It considers the assumptions upon which scholarship was initially based and its related research shortcomings, which included the still-unresolved absence of applicable models/theories and a consequential list of other major and minor problems. A major difficulty in journalism and media scholarship in post-totalitarian countries, stemmed from the absence of applicable models and/or theories, inclusive of those offered by studies of post-authoritarian nations. The synergism between media markets, ownership, and politics continues, potentially posing a threat to independent, democracy-supporting journalism. Journalism and media studies in all transitions-transformations suggest thematic similarities in scholarly foci. The legal environment substantially contributed or detracted from journalism’s evolution in unequal ways across the regions.
