Democratic Transformation and the Mass Media in Hungary: From Stalinism to Democratic Consolidation

Abstract

Television images from 1989–90 will haunt many of us for the rest of our lives: German youths in colorful dress dancing and waving flags on top of the Berlin Wall; massive prodemocracy demonstrations in Leipzig, East Germany; Václav Hável announcing the victory of Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution at Prague's Wenceslaw Square; Imre Nagy, prime minister during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, is finally buried with full honors in Budapest. These unforgettable images were seen by over a billion people around the world, including millions of citizens of Central and Eastern Europe. These citizens, who became key players in these events, were motivated by the information and visual images they received from the media daily about the collapse of the status quo in the Soviet-dominated parts of Europe. Undoubtedly, the mass media played important roles both in the breakdown of these Communist regimes in 1989–90 and in the radical transformation of the region since then.