Mass Media and the Democratisation of Eastern Europe
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Mass Media and Democratisation in Eastern Europe. Zu den Artikeln in dieser Ausgabe gehören: "Empowering women and men through participatory media structures" von Colin Sparks, "Issues for media theory in Russia's transistion from dictatorship" von John D.H. Downing und "A global balancing act: New structures in the Russian media" von Elena Vartanova. Peter Gross beschäftigt sich mit den Medien und der politischen Gesellschaft in Osteuropa. In weiteren Beiträgen geht es um die folgenden Themen: "The role of media in China's democratisation" von Junhao Hong, "Democratisation and restructuring the media industry in South Korea" von Sunny Yoon und "Media, democracy and globalisation: a comparative perspective" von Joseph Man Chan.
Sunny Yoon
The relationship between political liberalisation and market dominance and its impact on media content are explored in the following article, which focuses on South Korea. The media industry has been politically liberalised in the sense that ownership has been privatised and more and more demands from the grassroots have been heard. A newspaper company (owned by citizens) has been set up and a citizens’ movement affected the outcome of elections for parliament in 1998. Yet, power at the grassroots has not brought in ‘democracy’ because Korean society is facing the typical problem of market power and invasion of foreign capital following the break-up of an authoritarian regime.