A media system develops and grows within social, media and economic systems. The dynamically evolving Polish media system is under the influence of institutions and external stakeholders. The "crossroads" is not only a problem of the Polish media system. The analysis shows it in the broad global, European and Centro-European context.

Compares models of media and politics in Central and Eastern Europe.

A media system does not exist in a vacuum. It develops and grows within social, political and economic systems. They interact with and influence one another, as well as stimulate each other?s development. The main subject of this work is the dynamically evolving Polish media system, which is under the influence of institutions and external stakeholders. Thanks to this, it is easier to understand that the "crossroads" is not only a problem of the Polish media system, but a global one. For this reason, a comparative perspectiveis employed. Three chapters help to provide an answer to research questions dedicated to political parallelism and journalistic professionalization. The analysis would be limited and unrepresentative if the book enclosed it with one country's border, omitting the broad global, European and Centro-European context.

Comparing Media Systems Beyond the Western World offers a broad exploration of the conceptual foundations for comparative analysis of media and politics globally. It takes as its point of departure the widely used framework of Hallin and Mancini's Comparing Media Systems, exploring how the concepts and methods of their analysis do and do not prove useful when applied beyond the original focus of their 'most similar systems' design and the West European and North American cases it encompassed. It is intended both to use a wider range of cases to interrogate and clarify the conceptual framework of Comparing Media Systems and to propose new models, concepts and approaches that will be useful for dealing with non-Western media systems and with processes of political transition. Comparing Media Systems Beyond the Western World covers, among other cases, Brazil, China, Israel, Lebanon, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Thailand.

This book provides the most recent overview of media systems in Europe. It explores new political, economic and technological environments and the challenges they pose to democracies and informed citizens. It also examines the new illiberal environment that has quickly embraced certain European states and its impact on media systems, considering the sources and possible consequences of these challenges for media industries and media professionals. Part I examines the evolving role of public service media in a comparative study of Western, Southern and Central Europe, whilst Part II ventures into Europe’s periphery, where media continues to be utilised by the state in its quest for power. The book also provides an insight into the role of the European Union in preserving the independence and neutrality of public service media. It will be useful to students and researchers of political communication and international and comparative media, as well as democracy and populism.

Journalistic professional culture is changing globally. But are the changes the same in different media systems? The study compares journalists in Poland, Russia and Sweden in different dimensions, ideals, practices and social groups. The result illustrates a global journalism developing in relation to the different countries' context.

Appearing more than twenty years after the revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe, this book could not have come at a more appropriate time; a time to take stock not only of the changes but also the continuities in media systems of the region since 1989. To what extent are media institutions still controlled by political forces? To what extent are media markets operating in Central and Eastern Europe? Do media systems in Central and Eastern Europe resemble media systems in other parts of Europe? The answers to these questions are not the same for each country in the region. Their experience is not homogeneous. An international line up of distinguished experts and emerging scholars methodically examine the different economic, political, cultural, and transnational factors affecting developments in media systems across Central and Eastern Europe. Whereas earlier works in the media system tradition have, in the main, adopted the political framework of comparative politics, the authors argue that media systems are also cultural and economic institutions and there are other critical variables that might explain certain outcomes better. Topics discussed range from political economy to gender inequality to the study of ethno-cultural diversity. This unmatched volume gives you the unique opportunity to study the growing field of comparative media analysis across Eastern and Western Europe. A valuable resource that goes beyond the field of media and cultural analysis which media scholars as well as to area specialists should not go without!