ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates the citizen media that flourished during that period of popular unrest conformed to the already existing patterns of unclear ownership, low quality journalism and promotion of oligarchic interests. The citizen journalism efforts that emerged with the mission to target the oligarchy and the party model clearly served the interests of the main oligarchic circles in the country while hiding behind the rhetoric of democratization and participation. The chapter describes the field of audio-visual and print media in Bulgaria and examines the concentration of power in the hands of a few powerful oligarchs, arguing that it is precisely the worrying monopolies over traditional media outlets that have raised the expectations for citizen journalism as an alternative. Although few people have a full picture of the extent to which media are entangled with oligarchy, the lack of media independence is widely acknowledged and there is a drastic decline in trust in media.
