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<P> European Journalism Observatory: </P>
<H1 class="post entry-title" itemprop="headline"><A href="http://en.ejo.ch/media-politics/dirty-togetherness-press-politics-and-power-in-europe">“Dirty Togetherness”: Press, Politics And Power In Europe’s New Democracies</A></H1>
<P>(...) How is power being mediated in new democracies? Can media function independently in the unstable and polarized political environment experienced after the fall of autocracy? Do major shifts in economic and ownership structures help or hinder the quality of the media? How much can new media laws alter old journalistic habits and political cultures? And how do new technologies impact the construction of the media and democracy?</P>
<P>A sizeable international group of researchers grappled with these questions for several years with the help of the European Research Council, the London School of Economics, and the University of Oxford. They conducted over three hundred interviews with politicians and practitioners in<STRONG> Central and Eastern Europe</STRONG>, but <STRONG>also in other parts of the world</STRONG>. They also took part in numerous brainstorming sessions featuring academics, journalists, and media owners. <A href="http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780198747536.do" target=_blank>The results of this huge endeavour have just been published by Oxford University Press.</A> (<A href="http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780198747536.do">http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780198747536.do</A>)</P>
<P>The new democracies that are investigated in this book represent a variety of what sociologists call ‘glocalism’: homogenisation and heterogenisation coexist, revealing hybrid models and multiple modernities. It is local culture that assigns meaning to global and regional influences. Ideal liberal models and best practices are being promoted and aspired to, but these models and practices are being adopted in opaque ways. Local practices and regulatory schemes may well be creative and better suited to local environments than the imported blueprints; however, they do not live up to the liberal normative standards taught at departments of journalism and politics.</P></BODY></HTML>