Introduction: Open Societies and the Study of Mass Communication

Abstract

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern European Communist states did not only affect the political sphere. Scholars from different disciplines soon became interested in these new ‘transitional’ societies. These societies represented a paradoxical model of society that was virtual unknown so far: a postCommunist power structure with a capitalist economy. Mass communication scientists were very interested in this new model; how for instance could the media play an active role (independent, professional, with full freedom of speech) when they still were subject to traditional government pressures and control? These sorts of questions were addressed in four different expert meetings that were organized by the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University and the Amsterdam School of Communications Research, ASCoR. Scholars from these institutions and other experts from all over the world attended these meetings. The concept of the ‘open society’ developed by Karl Popper in the 1940s and revitalized by George Soros in the 1990s served as a basis for these discussions. In the first article in this issue, ‘With Two Feet on Firm Ground and Diverse Heads Up in the Air: Conclusions of Four Expert Meetings on Media and Open Societies in East and West’, Richard van der Wurff summarizes the results of four years of Open Societies Expert Meetings. He shows how the central theme of the meetings has moved from an initial focus on government policies and a balance of power between media and societal organizations and groups, to internal motivations for innovation, tolerance and appreciation of diversity. In the last (2001) meeting much attention was given to the role of the Internet in modern society, however it is not yet clear if this new medium will be a solution for the problems modern societies face. The other six contributions in this issue focus on the role of the Internet. Yassen Zassoursky takes a theoretical and normative approach in ‘Media and Communications as the Vehicle of the Open Society: The Internet and the Global Society’. He envisions the open society concept as one of the few possible means of solving the problems modern society is facing these days, especially in the aftermath of the attacks of 11 September. He combines and compares the idea of the open society with concepts like the information society, the civil society, the knowledge society, the consumerist society, the permissive society, and religious and ideological fundamentalism. In ‘The European Information Society: Much Ado About Nothing?’, Jan GAZETTE: THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR COMMUNICATION STUDIES