[Commlist] Call for book chapters: Beyond Institutions and Systems: Media Culture in Central and Eastern Europe

Beyond Institutions and Systems:
Media Culture in Central and Eastern Europe

Edited by:
 Márton Demeter (Karoli Gaspar University of the Reformed Church, Hungary)
and Michał Głowacki (University of Warsaw, Poland)

CALL FOR BOOK CHAPTERS

Rationale
Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is one of the most diverse regions with 
unique cultures and the media. Societal, political and technology 
transformations in the late 20th Century has opened up a room for 
democratic media and communications with a hope of professional 
journalism and supportive media policies development. However, the 
latest trends in some of the CEE countries (see for instance Hungary and 
Poland) have proven the weakness of media change reflected in the 
growing political agenda as well as polarization of media and society. 
In fact, media in CEE still functions as a watershed between the 
developed centers (especially Western Europe) and non-democratic regimes 
of Central Asian and Eastern European cultures. The blending of 
path-dependencies, socially-engaged media paradigm, adaptation 
strategies to digital age with shrunk in international press freedom 
ranks (Freedom House, Reporters Without Borders) call for advance 
approaches. The goal is to find a balance between the Western and 
Eastern traditions and build on a research framework that goes beyond 
media organizations and their accompanying internal and external systems.
 	CEE media are still underrepresented in the global map of 
communications and media studies. The region might be therefore seen as 
semi-periphery of academic community with only few scholars publishing 
internationally in top-tier periodicals. Moreover, the large number of 
existing studies investigated Central and Eastern Europe through the 
lenses of Western media systems dimensions. This approach might fail to 
address unique societal conditions, including conditions of political, 
journalism and organizational culture which have a critical impact on 
the way media is functioning. We argue that in order to fully understand 
the fabric of the CEE media one needs to focus more on people – their 
values, practices and mindsets. This vision has been recently augumented 
by Paolo Mancini (University of Perugia, Italy); he has argued that 
media systems perspective shall be extended by that of media culture and 
its significance in times of technology change and social/political 
volatility . The concept of media culture has also been recently tested 
by Sabina Mihelj and Simon Huxtable in their case study of Socialist 
Television .
Objective and themes
We invite experts and scholars interested in Central and Eastern 
European media to contribute their studies and insights to media culture 
as a multilayered analytical prism. We believe that with a help of 
diverse research scopes and methodologies, the book will go a long way 
in explaining critical role of culture from several points of view.
In line with this “Beyond Institutions and Systems: Media Culture in 
Central and Eastern Europe” welcomes comparative research as well as 
case study analyses which include (but are not limited to) the following 
subjects and sub-sections:
•	Cultural path-dependencies of media in CEE countries: socialism 
legacy, blending of culture with media, trust, ethics,
•	Journalism culture: professional unions and organizations, journalism 
values and norms, missions, strategies, skills and attitudes, training, 
experience, serving communities, media’s attitude to internal and 
external collaboration;
•	Organizational culture of media: organizational change and 
restructuring, adaptation from broadcast to network paradigm, management 
systems, R and D, working conditions, strategies to support risk taking, 
motivation, networking, afterwork culture;
•	Political culture and decision-making processes: media regulation, 
political communication, power struggles and political/economic 
interdependencies, inclusion of civil society in public consultation, 
co-creating and testing of new solutions;
•	Civil society and the culture of media publics: users’ engagement in 
media, public demand on media accountability, ethics of work in media, 
non-governmental organizations, high-techn/cultural industries;
•	University/research culture (human geography of communication and 
media studies): partnership systems between research and practice, 
journalism education, new forms of knowledge share (media hubs, 
accelerators), idea brokers and media innovation.
Chapter submission
Paper submissions for the edited collection in the form of abstract 
(max. 500 words) shall address the following evaluation criteria:
–	Relevance to the academic field of media management,
–	Theoretical background, research methodology and description of 
empirical data used,
–	Originality of presented approach and practical implications (for 
business and/or policy).

We kindly ask to send us the abstract with the suggested paper title to 
Marton Demeter ((demeter /at/ komejournal.com)) and Michal Glowacki 
((michal.glowacki /at/ uw.edu.pl)) by March 31, 2019. After a careful selection 
process we will ask selected authors to provide the full chapters by 
September 30, 2019. Detailed instructions regarding full contributions 
will be disseminated at the same time. Each contribution will then be 
sent to external double blind review in order to elaborate on final 
comments and adjustments. We expect the book to be submitted for 
publication in the Spring of 2020.
Timeline
Deadline for 500 words long chapter outlines: March 31, 2019
Decision on acceptance/rejection: April 15, 2019
Full chapters: September 30, 2019.
Review and revision: March 2020.


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