Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides the rationale for although politics and the media are radically different from what four theories of the Press assessed, academic research keeps holding tie to the usual dichotomy between authoritarianism and liberalism. It draws on the findings to put the political-media complex at work. Media and political communication studies have actually rendered key insights about these three aspects of the state-media relation: rules, organisational dynamics and patterns of change. The approach contests broad assumptions about this interaction merely mirroring fixed normative prescriptions or misguided individual choices. As an alternative point of entry to the study of media systems, the question: how did the process of democratisation change the state-media relation in transitional democracies? is presented. The approach contests broad assumptions about this interaction merely mirroring fixed normative prescriptions or misguided individual choices.