This book is a collection of essays about democracy and relations between media and politics in Central and Eastern Europe, a topic which has been much discussed in a variety of publications and during international and national conferences. The papers analyze the models of media systems, journalistic autonomy and the state of media freedom.

Contents: Bogusława Dobek-Ostrowska: 25 years after communism: four models of media and politics in Central and Eastern Europe – Auksė Balčytienė: Institutions and cultures: an analytical framework for the study of democratization and media transformations in Central and Eastern Europe – Svetlana S. Bodrunova/Anna A. Litvinenko: Four Russias in communication: fragmentation of the Russian public sphere in the 2010s – Natalija Mažeikienė/Kristina Juraitė: Back to the future? Puzzling transformations of post-Soviet television – David H. Weaver: Central and Eastern European journalists in comparative perspective: demographics, working conditions and professional values – Svetlana Pasti: A passion for Robin Hood: a case study of journalistic (in)dependence in Russia – Vasyl V. Kucherenko/Cindy T. Christen: Guarded or guardless? The role of political knowledge in spotting manipulation in news about international affairs and resisting its persuasive effects – Marína Urbániková/Jaromír Volek: Journalism student culture in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Sweden: a comparison of selected dimensions – Jelena Kleut/Dušan Spasojević: Monitory democracy online: a case study of two Serbian civic initiatives – Václav Štětka/Radim Hladík: Too much buzz about nothing? uses of social media in Czech news production – Agnieszka Hess: The Polish think tank scene – Mariyan Tomov/Lilia Raycheva: The Facebook image of the 2013/2014 social protests in Bulgaria – Michał Głowacki: Conclusions: mapping the outcomes of media transformation in Central and Eastern Europe.