Print Journalism in Former Soviet Bloc

While television and radio broadcast journalism may be hamstrung by centralization, print journalism has a much lower threshold of entry. Given the extremely low cost of production, and relatively low technology base needed for publication of newspapers, print journalism remains the easiest and most common form of independent press. The legendary underground newspapers of samizdat during the Soviet years have given way to a pantheon of small papers scattered throughout the former Soviet Bloc. The role of journalism in developing political consciousness is critical. There can be no political consciousness without access to the raw information on which consciousness exists. In order to be conscious, one must be conscious of something. Additionally, consciousness is irrelevant without an ability to act: newspapers provide both the mouth and the ears of the people.

            An uninformed public cannot coalesce into a political force, regardless of their intent, desire or ability. But newspapers also have an active element unlike centralized news platforms. Print journalism does not just provide information, but provides a platform for public communication and commentary. It is not enough to simply be conscious, one must also be able to be an actor. The low threshold of newspapers allows people access to that platform with minimal comparative effort. The "every person a journalist" meme is fundamentally empowering and democratic in nature, allowing a multiplication of centers of power on demand. Newspapers link individuals together at a level an order of magnitude beyond that of simple person-to-person interaction. Newspapers are the connectors of a democratic society, the structural component that allows the construction of a body of power independent of a centralized organization. They are the enabler of emergent organization.

            An interesting implication of this logic is that newspapers themselves matter far more than journalists. While full time journalists are a necessary component of newspaper journalism, they are not the enabling factor of newspaper driven political consciousness. Figure 26 graphs the relationship between the EIU democracy rating and the number of journalists per capita in each state. There is no discernable pattern.           

Figure 26: Number of Journalists per 1M Inhabitants vs. EIU Democracy Rating[1]

            However, Figure 27 shows how the number of daily newspaper titles produced per million inhabitants in a state. As expected, this correlates fairly well with democratic development. The more newspaper titles exist, the more democratic a state is. This is an important distinction because political consciousness arises not just from the availability of information but from the availability of a variety of information. The number of titles matters because it is a measure of the variety and breadth of newspapers.

Figure 27: Daily Newspaper Titles per 1M Inhabitants vs. EIU Democracy Rating[2]

Figure 28 further emphasizes the point by showing the correlation between daily newspaper circulation per 1000 inhabitants and democracy. Again, the higher the circulation rate of daily newspapers, the more democratic the state.

Figure 28: Daily Newspaper Circulation per 1000 Inhabitants vs. EIU Democracy Rating[3]

Figure 29 and Figure 30 show the same data as it applies to non-daily newspapers, yielding an intriguingly contrasting view. Non-daily newspaper titles and circulation do not correlate at all with democratic development. This actually is consistent with the failure to correlate the number of journalists with democracy. Non-dailies tend towards an analytical and editorial point of view as opposed to the immediate fact and event reporting of daily newspapers. Daily newspapers ride near the edge of the wave of current events, approaching a real-time reporting of events as they occur. Non-daily newspapers are on a delay from real-time and inevitably function to analyze events on a time-delay. While the latter is certainly valuable, it is the former that drives political consciousness for several reasons. First, time-delayed analysis is easier to subject to censorship. Second, time-delayed analysis is dependent on the existence of the real time information provided by daily newspapers. Third, daily newspapers function as an archive of raw information, which is not possible with broadcast media, and is less the purpose of non-daily newspapers. Daily newspapers represent the closest thing to an unprocessed and accurate recording of daily events. Once printed, facts do not go away without large scale systematic government action. All things being equal, if two states have equal access to printing, the state with a flourishing independent journalism will be the more democratic.

Figure 29: Non-Daily Newspaper Titles per 1M Inhabitants vs. EIU Democracy Rating[4]

Figure 30: Non-Daily Newspaper Circulation per 1000 Inhabitants vs. EIU Democracy Rating[5]