UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, 7th Annual International Postgraduate Conference

Inclusion Exclusion

16-18th February 2006

Friday 17 February 12:00 – 1:30: Panel E4: The Role of the Media

Angelika Wyka (Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt-am-Main): ‘What are journalists for in central and eastern Europe?’

It appears that the discussion [on journalism, AW] is not only about freedom of speech and ready-to-work journalists. Abolishing censorship and gaining sovereignty placed on us [journalists] the duty to provide reliable information. (…) we were not in a position to help citizens in understanding the essence of a democracy. We did not participate actively enough in creating civil society. (…) we have not been helping people to think of the state in terms of the public good.

Katarzyna Kolenda-Zalewska, a journalist, translation AW

The provocative question posed by Jay Rosen, "What Are Journalists For?", might help to inspire East Central European journalism to rethink its role and significance and so have the same effect as it had in the USA.

Besides structural and institutional shifts in the process of transition to democracy, relevant changes have appeared at the social level as well. The mass media (journalists) are perceived as a potential partner of the different political parties and of various organizations in providing the citizens with their ideology. Moreover, some consider that the mass media need their leaders and members to firstly support and secondly legitimise their work. Social, ethnic conflicts and other pressing problems, which under communism were smothered, have now become public. Thus societies which previously had no experience with pluralism of beliefs and opinions, and did not identify with the political and social context, now feel overwhelmed and lost in the new situation. Indeed, the society cannot simply assess and analyse. Nationalist and populist catch-phrases have become famous. It is worth stating at this point that, in particular at the social level, the mass media play an indispensable role. Added to that, the mass media (journalists) should educate and socialise the citizens, promote the development of civil society, deepen social cooperation in order to consolidate democracy, and help to build up a stable political system. Accordingly, the mass media bear responsibility for determining and supporting all reforms, spreading democratic attitudes, as well as explaining new mechanisms and behaviour (risks and dangers). The media’s ability to fill the vacuum of the public’s hunger for information (agenda-setting role) must be, however, stronger that it is in advanced democracies, where such problems are covered regularly.

The argument is that journalists need to become aware of this great moral responsibility. The adjustment of the new forms of mass communication to new, emerging institutions is needed, and journalists must set themselves the goal of being considered allies of democratisation. Nevertheless, this remains a surprisingly challenging task. Journalists performing the gatekeepers’ role and taking poorly thought out and rapid decisions can slow changes at the social level rather than assist them. Moreover, they can distort them. History provides numerous instances of free and independent media which eventually did more harm than good during the transition to democracy.

The focal point of the paper will be the question of the role and place of journalists in the transition period in East Central Europe. It will draw attention to changes that have taken place within the environment of journalists and emerging problems that have been affecting this community.