Comparative analysis of media tranformation in postcommunist states of Central Europe

The bachelor thesis describes media transformation in Central Europe since 2010, namely in Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. It deals with the decrease in democracy and media independence and its connection to public service media, media ownership and legislature changes. The primary research of the thesis is based on the theory of media system comparison of Daniel C. Hallin and Paolo Mancini. The theoretical part is divided into two parts. Firstly, the thesis defines the media systems according to Hallin and Mancini and the research methods. At the same time, the theory includes an analysis of critical political systems, given the fact they proved to be an essential factor in the media transformation. The empirical research focuses on the analysis of the countries mentioned above and their media systems. The thesis further explores political parallelism and instrumentalization and the role of the state and its impact on the public service media and ownership and legislative changes in the last 11 years. The thesis then analyses the changes in each state media system, the critical differences between them and the causes