media and politics in slovakia
DESCRIPTION
this is about media and politics in Slovakia, 1990/2009TRANSCRIPT
Two Decades of Media and Politics Relations in Slovakia: Lesson
Learned
Andrej Školkay
School of Communication and Media
Slovakia
The Conference MEDIA: 20 YEARS AFTER
organized by:
Department of Media Studies and Centre for Media Studies, Faculty of Social Science, Charles University in
Prague, Czech Republic
May 2009
Two Decades of Media and Politics Relations in Slovakia: Lesson Learned
„Electoral power per se is the mechanical guarantee of democracy; but the substantive guarantee is given by the conditions under which the citizen gets the information and is exposed to the pressure of opinion makers.“
Giovanni Sartori 1987, 86-87
Two Decades of Media and Politics Relations in Slovakia: Lesson Learned
„It is surprising, to us, to find that the parties which replaced the
communists and socialists often seem almost as ardent in using non-
democratic means to run the media.“
Al Hester, Director of Cox International Center, 1993
Two Decades of Media and Politics Relations in Slovakia: Lesson Learned
Why the majority of post-communist Slovak top politicians sooner or later gained ambivalent, often openly negative, sometimes even extremely negative attitudes towards the mass media?
Two Decades of Media and Politics Relations in Slovakia: Lesson Learned
Why there were various functions of the media in post communist transformation, sometimes opposite to what liberal democratic theory would expect on the part of the media?
Two Decades of Media and Politics Relations in Slovakia: Lesson Learned
Top-ten enemy of the press in the world 1995
Committee to Protect Journalists
Two Decades of Media and Politics Relations in Slovakia: Lesson Learned
missunderstanding of the functions of the media in liberal democracy
AND principles of their work (e.g. news
criteria)
Two Decades of Media and Politics Relations in Slovakia: Lesson Learned
Why there were various functions of the media in post communist transformation, sometimes contradictory to what liberal democratic theory would expect?
The functions of the media: Information Criticism (watchdog) Analysis Mediating („mirror“) ..entertainment, economy
function,...
Two Decades of Media and Politics Relations in Slovakia: Lesson Learned
INFORMATION:
A) misinformation B) propaganda C) truth
initially strong influence, later less so important (experience, additional sources of information)
Two Decades of Media and Politics Relations in Slovakia: Lesson Learned
CRITICISM:
A) wrong subjects B) too often unfair C) too late D) but progress in time
minimum impact
Two Decades of Media and Politics Relations in Slovakia: Lesson Learned
ANALYSIS:
A) missing in the most important media (radio, television)
B) good in quality daily and weekly press and foreign radio broadcast
Minimum impact
Two Decades of Media and Politics Relations in Slovakia: Lesson Learned
MEDIATING:
A) more often follower than leader
Two Decades of Media and Politics Relations in Slovakia: Lesson Learned
ADDITIONAL FUNCTIONS:
political intensification
manipulatory (deliberate, unintentional)
integrative / disintegrative cultivation
Two Decades of Media and Politics Relations in Slovakia: Lesson Learned
Which media scenario/development trajectory could be applied to the
Slovak case?
And WHY?