Medientransformationen und Entwicklungsprozesse in Mittel- und Osteuropa

15 years after the beginning of the epochal changes in Central and Eastern Europe, it seems increasingly disputable to speak about »Eastern European media« and to regard them as a whole. In analogy to the general transformation, every country has its own typical transformation path, also with respect to the media, creating a broad variety of such paths in the region. Therefore, analyses of the media in this region not only require to assume a differentiated perspective, but it appears also to be important to identify relevant factors that flank and shape the general transformation, and to complement the media analyses by these external parameters. This approach led to the development of a multi-dimensional methodological instrument for media analyses in post-communist countries. It is suitable for mapping three dimensions of media transformation: first, the different transformational stages that document transformational progress; second, the specific historical and cultural as well as political and socio-economical conditions; and third, the diverse levels of the transformational process and the development in the media.