Baltic Media in Transition

In the summer of 1993, the first comprehensive book about the development of the Baltic media was published in Tartu:Towards a Civic Society: The Baltic Media's Long Road to Freedom (edited by Svennik Hoyer, Epp Lauk and Peeter Vihalemm). The book traced the manifold and complex history of the Baltic media from the 1760s,when the first Estonian and Latvian periodicals were published, to the early 1990s, the new beginning of democratic development in an environmentof restored national independence.

In the present volume, media scholars from four Baltic universities continue the comparative analysis of media developments in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This examination explores the general trends of society and media development in the 1990s and the beginning of the new millennium. More detailed insight is focused on the peaks and crises of public broadcasting in Estonia. Specific chapters deal with the role of the Russian-language media, as well as media regulation in Estonia.

The appendices provide comprehensive statistical data about society and media development in the Baltics in the context of the post-Communist transition in Central and Eastern Europe.

Contents and the first chapters in PDF