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This textbook offers an overview of the current ethical challenges of public communication in general and of journalism in particular in Eastern Europe. It recalls the normative theories of media performance and describes the professionalisation and de-professionalisation of journalism. It explores the impacts of digitalisation and of platformisation on the news media and looks into the global and local reasons behind the inability of journalism to fully perform its democratic functions in Eastern Europe. It also offers a detailed account of the media systems and journalistic cultures of the region following the political transformations of 1989–1991 and identifies some of the most controversial practices of journalism to date. Then, in search of answers to the current ethical challenges of public communication, it describes the prevailing notions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ journalism, changing public expectations vis-à-vis journalists, the specific challenges encountered by investigative reporters, the effects of online fake news on the journalistic profession, the changing practices of political and corporate censorship, and the differences between smear and scandal. Finally, it argues that ethical public communication calls for more than just ethical journalism: media policy must also be ethically based and seek answers that provide all citizens with equal access to the means of public communication.
“This timely and incisive study unpacks the ethical, political, and technological forces reshaping journalism across Eastern Europe. With clarity and scholarly rigor, it exposes systemic challenges while offering thoughtful pathways forward. An essential resource for anyone seeking to understand or strengthen democratic communication today.”—Marius Dragomir, Department of Public Policy, Central European University, Austria.
“Through a remarkable knowledge of the existing literature, this book offers an interesting landscape of the ethics of journalism in Central Eastern Europe. The theme is discussed with an eye to the situation in the western world and the very established thought on professional journalism.”—Paolo Mancini, Università di Perugia, Italy.
“Seminal go-to book on not just ethics and journalism theories and its specifics in Eastern Europe but also the challenging realities: of digitization, citizen journalism, media systems, digital public and digital public media, but also disinformation, smear campaigns and other anomalies that affect journalism in Easter Europe—but also elsewhere.”—Prof. Marko Milosavljević, Department of Journalism, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
This book takes a 360° approach to addressing the contemporary challenges facing professional journalism, from economic constraints and audience fragmentation to disinformation and the question of what constitutes morally right or wrong behaviour. Both journalists and scholars can learn a great deal from these highly experienced academic writers.—Josef Trappel, Professor for media policy and media economics at the Department of Communication Studies, University of Salzburg, Austria.
“Timely and incisive, written in an elegant and informative style, this book is a slow, delightful read on journalism ethics. Drawing on historical cases and today’s examples, it guides readers in understanding how the media mirrors broader societal challenges that reshape how news is created, shared, and consumed.”—Auksė Balčytienė, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania.