Matevz Tomsic - Böcker

The book offers insight into different relevant issues related to recent developments in the political and media space in Europe. The authors are interested in how these phenomena affect the future of the democratic system and the general development of the European Union. The special focus is on populism as one of the most discussed political phenomena in recent years. The assumption is that the rise of populism in Europe is a reaction to the anomalies and consequences of globalisation as well as a symptom of the crisis of established politics. Furthermore, the spread of populist messages is related to the profound change the media space is facing, particularly with the crisis of traditional media. Populists utilise different media channels that often serve to spread disinformation. Strengthening European democracy requires improving institutional effectiveness, responsiveness and accountability toward the citizenry, as well as building a European identity.

The book deals with the analysis of key political actors in the ‘new democracies’ from Central and Eastern Europe. It is focused on character of elites, particularly political ones, and their role in the process of societal change. The author argues that elite configuration in terms of relationships between different elite factions as well as their cultural profile has strong impact on developmental dynamics of these societies. Although – at least in some countries from the region – political elites have managed to build the institutional foundations of systems of a market economy and a parliamentary democracy, with only small chances of any reverses taking place, they have been much less successful in establishing mechanisms for society’s self-organisation.

The book provides a compilation of idiosyncratic manifestations of information society in techno-economic, political and cultural spheres. The contributors focus on the increasing complexity within information societies. To manage this complexity, societies develop constantly evolving context-specific modes of meta-governance. The contributions allow a better understanding of well-known conceptualizations and definitions of information society and related concepts such as post-industrial society, post-modernity, as well as network society, and knowledge society.

This book explores the state of media literacy and media education in several Central and Eastern European countries. The main argument centers around the connection between media literacy and media education on the one hand, and liberal democratic values on the other. Data collected through a European Union funded project shows that diversity is the key word when it comes to how countries prioritize media literacy and integrate media education into school curricula. Although national governments have been fairly active in reforming the education system to include media education, civil society is the most impactful actor through the implementation of various projects linking media literacy with democratic values.