Critical Junctures in the Croatian Media System

Abstract

At the very end of the 1980s, Croatia had a good starting position to develop accountable media because Yugoslavian media markets developed within a decentralised paradigm controlled by republics, not by the Federal Government. In this article, the authors focus on changes in the Croatian media development between 1990 and 2020. Framed by McChesney’s theory on critical junctures (2007) they focus on three: privatisation, liberalisation, and commercialisation. Research questions consider five dimensions of each of the junctures: (1) the legal framework, (2) media ownership, (3) technological developments, (4) the journalistic profession, and (5) media audiences. The authors elaborate and conclude that in the Croatian media environment these brief periods of dramatic changes, followed by long periods in which structural or institutional change was slow and difficult, were heavily shaped by all three junctures, and each of them was shaped by multiple background processes evident in major legal changes, ownership changes, technological developments, reshaping of journalism, and shifting audience dynamics.