Inspired by the recent achievements on comparing media systems and research on models of media and politics in Western Europe and the US, this title extends the findings to Central and Eastern Europe. It addresses five major interrelated themes: concepts and history of comparative media research - how ideological and normative constructs gave way to systematic empirical work; the role of foreign media groups in post-communist regions - the effects of ownership in the context of economic and political pressures on media organizations as well as in terms of impacts on media freedom; political parallelism in mature and new democracies - the various dimensions of the relationship between mass media and political systems in a comparative perspective; professionalization of journalism in different political cultures - autonomy of journalists, professional norms and practices, political instrumentalization and/or commercialization of the media etc; and, the role of the state intervention in media systems, above all in public service broadcasting.