Course objectives: The course will focus on the 6 countries that were republics in the SFRY and answer the question of why media in Southeast Europe are the way they are. The course will explain divergent media system trajectories in the countries in Southeast Europe and challenge the presumption that the common socialist experience critically influenced a common outcome in media development after democratic transformations by showing different remote and proximate configuration of conditions that influence their contemporary shape.

The course will present a novel theoretical framework for the comparative analysis of post-socialist media systems, building on the theory of historical institutionalism and the notion of critical junctures and path dependency in searching for an explanation for similarities or differences among media systems in the Eastern European region. The course will use a set of theoretical insights from communication studies, sociology, political science and social history in an interdisciplinary theoretical approach. Historical institutionalism as the building approach will focus our attention on the different social and political conditions in which the power of the media and over the media has developed in the more proximate times and in the longue durée, and contributed to multi-causal explanations of the present day state of media freedom, journalism autonomy, professionalism or market development in the six countries.

Enrolment requirements and/or entry competences required for the course: No specific requirements.

Learning outcomes at the level of the programme to which the course contributes:   

(1) Analyse political ideas and processes in Southeast Europe

(2) Design and conduct small-scale qualitative research

(3) Evaluate the empirical validity of statements and conclusions in various types of texts

(4) Recognize, use, integrate, and document data from various sources

Expected learning outcomes at the level of the course:   

(1) Students will learn to identify historical political, cultural and social process and structures in Southeast Europe which influence media system formation

(2) Students will be able to identify and discuss different models of media systems and their applicability to Southeast Europe

Course content (syllabus):   

Session topics:

(1) Three approaches to comparing the media systems of SEE countries

(2) Recent advances in comparative research of media and communication

(3) Explaining the transformations of post-socialist media systems 1: the problem of studying media change

(4) Explaining the transformations of post-socialist media systems 2: critical junctures and path dependency and the qualitative comparative approach

(5) The longue durée of the study of media systems in Southeast Europe: the 3 time frames

(6) The path to modernity: from Habsburg and Ottoman empires to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia: how the media developed in different social, political and economic conditions of the two conflicted empires

(7) Socialist modernization in SFRY: how the media developed in the six socialist republics, and was socialism the same in all of them

(8) Post-socialist media systems on a path to democratization: the 1990s, and the media in conflict and democratization

(9) Consolidated media systems after 2000: new media policies, new media actors, old audiences

(10) Explaining the media system trajectories and their current state: the longue durée of the three time frames and the configurations which produce free or unfree media in Southeast Europe (and beyond: double hybridity of the media in SEE)

Format of instruction: lectures, seminars and workshops, independent assignments 

Student responsibilities: Students will be required to read and review at least 10 texts from the list, and prepare a comparative case study on one of the salient issues of media in SEE. The points of all the required work will form a final grade.

Monitoring student work: Class attendance, research, seminar paper

1. Hallin, D. C. & Mancini, P. (2004). Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
2. Hallin, D. C. & Mancini, P. (eds.) (2012). Comparing Media Systems Beyond the Western World. New York, Cambridge University Press.
3. Peruško, Zrinjka (2016). “Historical Institutionalist Approach in Comparative Media Systems Research: The Case of Post-Yugoslavia.”
4. Javnost – The Public, 23:3, 255-272.
5. Peruško, Zrinjka, Vozab, Dina, Čuvalo, Antonija (2021). Comparing Post-socialist Media Systems: The Case of Southeast Europe. London. Routledge.

1. Aalberg, T., van Aelst, P. & Curran, J. (2013). “Media systems and the political information environment: A cross-national comparison.” International Journal of Press/ Politics, 15 (3), 255–271.
2. Bajomi-Lázár, P. (2015). “Variations in media freedom: Why do some governments in Central and Eastern Europe respect media freedom more than other ones?”. Central European Journal of Communication, 8 (14), 4–20.
3. Bajomi-Lázár, P. (ed.) (2017). Media in Third-Wave Democracies: Southern and Central/Eastern Europe in a Comparative Perspective. Budapest, L’Harmattan.
4. Bannerman, S. & Haggart, B. (2015). “Historical institutionalism in communication studies.” Communication Theory, 25 (1), 1–22.
5. Bašić Hrvatin, S. & Milosavljević, M. (2001). Medijska politika v Sloveniji v devetdesetih. Ljubljana, Mirovni Inštitut.
6. Bašić Hrvatin, S. & Petković, B. (2004). “Regional overview.” In: Bašić Hrvatin, S. & Petković, B. (eds.), Media Ownership and Its Impact on Media Independence and Pluralism. Ljubljana, Slovenia, Mirovni Inštitut, pp. 9–38.
7. Bašić Hrvatin, S. & Petković, B. (2008). You Call This a Media Market?. Ljubljana, Mirovni Inštitut.
8. Bieber, F. (2020). The Rise of Authoritarianism in the Western Balkans. Cham, Palgrave Macmillan.
9. Bourdieu, P. (2005). “The political field, the social science field, and the journalistic field.” In: Benson, R. & Neveu, E. (eds.) Bourdieu and the Journalistic Field. Cambridge, Polity Press, pp. 29–47.
10. Brüggemann, M., Engesser, S., Büchel, F., Humprecht, E. & Castro, L. (2014). “Hallin and Mancini revisited: Four empirical types of Western media systems.” Journal of Communication, 64 (6), 1037–1065.
11. Büchel, F., Humprecht, E. & Castro-Herrero, L. (2016). “Building empirical typolo- gies with QCA: Toward a classification of media systems.” The International Journal of Press/Politics, 21 (2), 209–232.
12. Castro Herrero, L., Humprecht, E., Engesser, S., Brüggemann, M. & Büchel, F. (2017). “Rethinking Hallin and Mancini beyond the West: An analysis of media systems in Central and Eastern Europe.” International Journal of Communication, 11 (27), 4797–4823.
13. Chadwick, A. (2017). The Hybrid Media System: Politics and Power. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
14. Dobek-Ostrowska, B. (2015). “25 years after communism: Four models of media and politics in Central and Eastern Europe.” In: Dobek-Ostrowska, B. & Glowacki, M (eds.), Democracy and Media in Central and Eastern Europe 25 Years on. Frankfurt, Peter Lang, pp. 11–45. https://doi.org/10.3726/978-3-653-04452-2
15. Downey, J. & Mihelj, S. (eds.) (2012). Central and Eastern European Media in Comparative Perspective. Farnham, Ashgate.
16. Mihelj, S. & Huxtable, S. (2018). From Media Systems to Media Cultures: Under- standing Socialist Television. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
17. Peruško, Z. (2011). Assessment of Media Development in Croatia based on UNESCO Media Development Indicators. Paris: UNESCO.
18. Peruško, Zrinjka. 2021. “Public Sphere in Hybrid Media Systems in Central and Eastern Europe.” Javnost – The Public. https://doi.org/10.1080/13183222.2021.1861405.