Crisis of Agency in Central and Eastern Europe: From the Consolidation of Media Freedom to the Institutionalisation of Free Choice

This essay advocates applying a culturally and attitudinally sensitive approach to the analysis of the present-day media and digital communications-inspired societal transformations. In recent years, trends towards the “backslide" in democratic performance and social cohesion have been registered throughout Europe: the rise of populist politics and extreme polarisation has grown in Western Europe, whereas in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) there is noticed an increase of social and economic instability followed by a dramatic rise of anti-democratic political actions. These developments imply a growing need (especially in the CEE countries) to find their own specific ways of dealing with both-systemic restructurings in social/political life, on the one hand, and intensifying feelings of distrust, uncertainty, and discontent, on the other hand. The essay critically examines the changing functionality and logic of contemporary media and communications ecosystems which notably contrasts with the classical line of thinking about the news media as traditional means of establishing and preserving such subjective senses as feelings of attachment and trust, unity and togetherness, solidarity and social cohesion.