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This is the accepted manuscript version of the book chapter. The definitive, published version of record of the chapter can be found at: https://www.peterlang.com/view/product/21667 ; This paper critically examines how media in post-transformation countries of the CEE region fulfil their normative role of "watchdogs of democracy", particularly in relation to the issue of political corruption, which is regarded as one of the most palpable issues the new democracies are coping with. Empirically, the paper is be based on an expert survey conducted (together with Henrik Örnebring) in 2012 in eight CEE countries, on field interviews with investigative journalists, as well as on a frequency analysis of media salience of corruption and the trends in prosecution of corruption in the Czech Republic. Drawing on the results from both parts of the empirical study, the paper suggests the media have a best chance to fulfil their watchdog role and to enforce accountability when supported by the effort of other accountability institutions composing a network of actors mutually reinforcing each other in their effort to curb political corruption.

This article presents a comparative analysis of the changing patterns of media ownership in ten new EU member states from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and discusses the implications of these processes for media freedom and autonomy. Briefly outlining the history of internationalization of CEE media markets, it argues that the presence of Western-based multinational companies on the CEE media markets has been recently diminishing rather than further growing. In addition, a different type of actor has been gaining prominence on the CEE media map, unspotted or largely overlooked in most previous analyses, namely, local business elites acquiring stakes in news media. Combining secondary sources and field interviews with media experts and practitioners, this study explores the various practices of business and political instrumentalization of media by their local owners, often resulting in a constrained editorial independence and increasing intertwinement of the systems of media, politics, and economy in the region.

This paper was accepted for publication in the journal The International Journal of Press/Politics and the definitive published version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1940161212452449. ; This article presents a comparative analysis of the changing patterns of media ownership in ten new EU member states from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and discusses the implications of these processes for media freedom and autonomy. Briefly outlining the history of internationalization of CEE media markets, it argues that the presence of Western-based multinational companies on the CEE media markets has been recently diminishing rather than further growing. In addition, a different type of actor has been gaining prominence on the CEE media map, unspotted or largely overlooked in most previous analyses, namely, local business elites acquiring stakes in news media. Combining secondary sources and field interviews with media experts and practitioners, this study explores the various practices of business and political instrumentalization of media by their local owners, often resulting in a constrained editorial independence and increasing intertwinement of the systems of media, politics, and economy in the region.

This article examines, by means of a case study, recent trends in media ownership in the Czech Republic and their impact on media pluralism and journalistic autonomy. The analysis focuses mainly on the ever-intensifying processes of ownership concentration and conglomeration, as well as on the presence and rising significance of local media owners, many of whom belong to the Czech business and industry elites. In this context, the article investigates both the allegations and the growing evidence of political and business instrumentalization of the media in the hands of these "industry tycoons." The author argues that this kind of coupling of business, media, and political sectors constitutes an ever more prominent feature of the Czech media system, and can be regarded as an indicator of its gradual "Italianization." Contributing to the debates about the risks of concentrating foreign ownership in the post-transformation media markets, this case study also demonstrates that the increasing power of local media owners certainly does not represent a trouble-free alternative either.

Introduction : social media, politics and democracy in the post-transition Central and Eastern Europe / Pawel Surowiec and Vaclav Stetka -- Who is afraid of the platforms? : adoption and strategies of use of social media by politicians in the Czech Republic / Alena Mackova, Vaclav Stetka, Jan Zapotocky, Radim Hladik -- Presidential elections campaining in Romania : connecting with civic-ness on Facebook / Monica Patrut -- Towards self-mediatization of politics : representatives' use of Facebook and Twitter in Croatia and Hungary / Norbert Merkovity -- Political use of social media and personalisation of political communication in Slovenia / Jernej Amon Prodnik, Tomaz Dezelan and Alem Maksuti -- Professionalization and intentional disengagement : Facebook campaigning in the local Bulgarian elections in 2015 / Ognyan Seizov -- We have been to Bolotnaya : Russian protests, the online public sphere and the discourse of division / Alina Ryabovolova -- The networked public sphere and Ukrainian journalists / Dmytro Hubenko and Melissa Wall -- Branding Poland online : propagating and resisting nation branding on Facebook / Pawel Surowiec and Magdalena Kania Lundholm -- The dilemmas of social media-enabled civic activism : the case of sexual minorities in Lithunia / Galina Miazhevich -- Conclusions / Vaclav Stetka and Pawel Surowiec.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in Populist Political Communication in Europe on 21 Jul 2016, available online: http://www.routledge.com/9781138654792.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in Citizen Participation and Political Communication in a Digital World, November 2015, available online: http://www.tandfebooks.com/isbn/9781315677569 ; This chapter aims to empirically investigate the connection between online political expression (Gil de Zuniga et al. 2014) and offline political and civic engagement in the context of the 2013 Czech Parliamentary elections. The theoretical context of the chapter is informed by the debates surrounding the role of social network sites and other Web 2.0 applications in facilitating new forms of civic engagement and political participation, and particularly by the concepts of "clicktivism" or "slacktivism" (e.g. Morozov 2009), claiming that online activism is often not being followed or complemented by offline or forms of participation, and that there is no link between digital engagement and citizens' real–life actions. Driven by the main research question "How does social media use relate to election turnout and other forms of offline political participation?", this study attempts to test this thesis, using data from a representative survey of the Czech adult population, distributed directly following the 2013 elections. The results suggest that the hypothesis about "clicktivism" is all but unfounded in the context of the Czech social network users, as those politically active online during the campaign are more likely to vote, and engage more often in other traditional participatory activities as well. The analysis further explores the relationship between participation and the use of social media, taking into account other factors such as political interest and political efficacy, with the ambition to provide a more detailed understanding of online political engagement and its determinants.

The last few years have witnessed an intensified academic debate on the potential of online social networking sites (SNSs) in the Czech Republic. However, the ensuing academic discussions focused mostly on the SNS pages of political parties. Politicians in particular have recently become the focus of attention in the shift towards research exploring the use of SNSs. The aim of this paper is to provide insight into the role of Facebook in the communication of parties and candidates during the Czech parliamentary elections in 2013. We analyse the adoption of Facebook as a mobilization tool by seven parties as well as by 200 individual deputies, looking for similarities and differences in terms of the adoption, strategy and engagement of users. Although party influence seems to be a significant predictor of Facebook adoption, our data also indicate that using other digital channels increases the chances of higher engagement on Facebook at the individual level.

This paper develops the idea that recent "networked" social movements are driven by emotions and provides an analysis of the role of emotions in movement mobilization. The case study focuses on the 2013 protests against a "coup" within the Czech Social Democratic Party. The protests had an immediate impact, resulting in a series of demonstrations, mainstream media attention and a successful overturning of the "coup". The movement's Facebook page served as an important catalyst for the protest. We argue that the movement's success can be explained by its emphasis on perceived issues of morality. As people tend to gather on Facebook to express their feelings, social media become a primary conduit for emotional protest, which can be subsequently taken to the streets.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journalism Studies on 04 Aug 2015, available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2015.1046995 ; This article examines the impact of social media on Czech news media content. The study relies on a content analysis of a six-month sample of news articles collected in 2013 and focuses on social networking sites (SNSs), namely Facebook and Twitter, in their capacity as acknowledged sources in the agenda of traditional news media in the Czech Republic. The results include information on the differences between tabloid and quality press, the topics and actors that are likely to be associated with social media in their capacity as sources, the links between social media sources and the geographical focus of the news, and the type of social media content that the news media are inclined to use. The main features of the utilization of SNSs as news sources in the Czech Republic can be characterized by low intensity, a preference for domestic affairs, and a bias toward tabloidization. In several examined categories, we found evidence of consistently disparate uses of Facebook and Twitter that caution against generalizations about the role of social media in journalism and signal the requirement for a more nuanced approach to individual platforms. The article concludes that Czech news media do not fully exploit the democratic potential of SNSs and favor elite sources.

Closed access. This is a chapter from the book, Democracy and Media in Central and Eastern Europe 25 Years On. ; This chapter contributes to the debate about the impact of social media on the changing patterns of news production. Applying content analysis to a six-month sample of news articles from 2013, this empirical study explores the influence of information on social networks, especially Facebook and Twitter, on the agenda of the main Czech news media outlets (both print and electronic). The chapter addresses following questions: Which topics get covered using social media as news sources? What purpose do the quotes from social networks serve within the overall logic of news stories? Do references to social media reflect their role as sources or their appeal as a topic in its own right? The analysis aims to find out if there are differences between tabloid and quality press in the references to social media content. Finally, the study strives to assess whether the reliance on social media in newsgathering changes the established practices of gatekeeping and opens up new possibilities for actors and civic groups often denied access to traditional mainstream media.

This article examines the relationship between online political expression and offline forms of political participation in the context of the 2013 Czech Parliamentary elections. It draws on the rapidly growing but still very much inconclusive empirical evidence concerning the use of new media and social network sites in particular for electoral mobilization and social activism, and their impact on more traditional forms of civic and political engagement. The theoretical framework of the paper is inspired by the competing perspectives on the role of social media for democratic participation and civic engagement, the mobilization vs. normalization thesis, as well as by the popular concepts of clicktivism or slacktivism (Morozov, 2009), denouncing online activism for allegedly not being complemented by offline actions and having little or no impact on real-life political processes. With the intention to empirically contribute to these discussions, this study uses data from a cross-sectional survey on a representative sample of the Czech adult population (N=1,653) which was conducted directly following the 2013 Parliamentary elections. The study was driven by the main research question: Is there a link between online political expression during the election campaign and traditional forms of political participation among Czech Facebook users? Furthermore, the analysis examined the relationship between online political participation and a declared political interest, electoral participation and political news consumption. The results obtained from an ordinal logistic regression analysis confirm the existence of a significant positive relationship between the respondents' level of campaign engagement on Facebook and their political interest, political information seeking as well as traditional (mainly offline) participation activities, including voting.

This article was published in the journal Teorija in Praksa and is made available with the kind permission of the publisher. ; This article presents an analysis of the citizens' engagement with the 2013 Czech parliamentary elections campaign on Facebook. While many studies primarily focus on the intensity and forms of adoption of social networks by political actors in campaign communication, we attempt to explore both political parties' use of Facebook as well as the extent and ways of citizen participation on the online election campaign. The empirical base for this study consists of all communication archived over the course of three weeks (before and after the elections) on the Facebook profiles of ten most important Czech political parties. Using quantitative content analysis, we first present an overview of the dynamics and intensity of users' engagement with the campaign, illustrating that some of the small as well as populist parties have managed to mobilize significantly larger part of Facebook population than more established parties. following that descriptive part, we first turn to the analysis of the actual content of communication, examining primarily the tone of users' comments, and than we move on to a more in-depth, qualitative examination of communication on the profiles of two selected political parties which were very successful in their online mobilization. The results indicate that most party profiles have displayed a rather surprising level of heterogeneity, allowing for dissenting voices to be displayed in what is generally seen as a heavily managed communication environment.

This article presents a comparative study of investigative journalism in nine countries in the Central and Eastern European region (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia). The purpose is descriptive and analytical. Descriptively, the article charts the presence and provision of investigative journalism across the region and inventories and assesses the various funding forms that exist against the background of the recent (2008-2009) financial crisis. Analytically, the article focuses on assessing the relative autonomy (defined as autonomy from external actors) and effects (defined as the removal from office and sentencing of political actors revealed to be engaged in legal and moral transgressions, commonly various forms of corruption). The article finds investigative journalism across the region in general to be weak in terms of autonomy and effects, but stronger in countries that have had more stable and richer media markets (notably Estonia, Poland, and the Czech Republic). The article further finds that in some countries (notably Romania and Bulgaria), alternative news online sources play an increasingly important role as providers of investigative journalism.