Media, Culture & Society 
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      Credibility of media offerings in centrally controlled media systems: a
               qualitative study based on the example of East Germany  
                                   Michael Meyen and Katja Schwer 
                                 Media Culture Society 2007; 29; 284 
                                  DOI: 10.1177/0163443707074260 
                          The online version of this article can be found at: 
                       http://mcs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/29/2/284
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                 Credibility of media offerings in centrally
                 controlled media systems: a qualitative study
                 based on the example of East Germany
                 Michael Meyen and Katja Schwer
                 MUNICH UNIVERSITY
                 The issue
                 In the early 1970s, Ithiel de Sola Pool tried to systematize the effects of cen-
                 trally controlled and supervised media systems on audiences. Analyzing letters
                 addressed to Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty from listeners throughout
                 Eastern Europe, he identified the following consequences for media use in
                 countries governed by authoritarian governments: continuous retreat to pri-
                 vacy, declining political interest and decreasing credibility of the official
                 media. According to these findings, citizens’ desire for reliable information
                 made foreign radio programs become their primary source of information and
                 increased the importance of rumors within society (Sola Pool, 1973). If these
                 assumptions are correct and central control of the media system really leads
                 people to look for trustworthy information – and thus to turn primarily to for-
                 eign broadcasts – this would be an indication that the political system and
                 media offerings do indeed have an impact on communication needs.
                    However, these findings need to be reconsidered, both on a methodologi-
                 cal and a theoretical level. Sola Pool based his study solely on statements
                 made by people who dared to write letters to the West. One should not gen-
                 eralize from the attitude of these letter writers to the rest of the population.
                 The main reason for this is that these assumptions are inconsistent with what
                 is known about media use in industrialized countries. Most people consume
                 entertainment programs offered by mass media in order to relax, lessen the
                 strains of reality and escape to another world, to kill time, combat boredom,
                 have things to talk about and keep themselves busy (Vorderer, 2000). The
                 media are comforters and places of refuge, a substitute for religion and social
                 Media,Culture & Society © 2007 SAGE Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi
                 and Singapore), Vol. 29(2): 284–303
                 [ISSN: 0163-4437 DOI: 10.1177/0163443707074260]
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              Meyen & Schwer, Credibility of media offerings                               285
              contacts; they provide role models and have an ‘opiate’effect. Add to this the
              desire to understand and control one’s immediate environment – a wish as
              unrealistic in the German Democratic Republic as in Western societies. In
              such a situation, news programs can provide security by providing up-to-date
              information within a few minutes, making its users believe that they are well
              informed (Brosius, 1995). However, only a minority of the population is
              interested in distinct political formats such as news broadcasts, radio com-
              mentaries or editorials.
                 Of all the socialist states in Eastern Europe, access to Western media was
              easiest in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). Radio and TV
              programs produced in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) had to over-
              come neither language nor cultural barriers, nor large geographical distances.
              Tuning in to Western broadcast stations was a normal fact of life for many
              East Germans (Dittmar, 2004; Meyen and Hillman, 2003). Radio programs
              from West Germany could be received throughout the country (at least via
              medium waveband), and 85 percent of viewers were able to watch Western
              TV broadcasts. Whereas the Communist Party had initially tried to limit
              reception by launching ideological campaigns and operating jamming sta-
              tions, moral pressure eased off gradually and, by the mid 1970s, consumption
              of Western media items was officially tolerated (Steinmetz and Viehoff, 2004:
              320). How did East German citizens cope with this situation? What programs
              did they watch or listen to and whom did they trust? Were Western radio pro-
              grams really their primary source of information, as Sola Pool claimed? And,
              to go a step further: what did people’s attitude towards media offerings from
              East and West depend on? 
              Determinants of communication needs
              So far there has been no comprehensive theoretical approach that systemati-
              cally considers all factors that affect media consumption. Although work
              based on the uses-and-gratifications tradition (Rubin, 2002) includes some
              extensive catalogues of needs to be met by the media (e.g. McQuail, 2003:
              388) and underpins several of these needs with theoretical concepts, some of
              which derive from sociology and social psychology (e.g. para-social interac-
              tion, social comparison or curiosity and mood management), these very
              approaches do not heed the societal causes for the various forms of media use.
              Models that explain media consumption not only by referring to basic human
              needs, but also by focusing on media content and social environment, rely pri-
              marily on individual cases. Analytical categories therefore refer to individu-
              als, rather than to society as a whole and obscure the impact of social
              structures. Cultural studies attempts to offer a response to the shortcomings
              of the uses-and-gratifications approach with regard to the social dimensions
              of media consumption, pursuing media analysis as social analysis. The field
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                 286                                              Media, Culture & Society 29(2)
                 can look back on a long-standing research tradition on popular cultural con-
                 sumption, situating an understanding of consumption within the structures of
                 everyday life in general, and with regard to women’s routines and patterns in
                 particular (e.g. Hobson, 1980; Morley, 1986; Nightingale, 1990; Silverstone,
                 1994). Yet, even within cultural studies, most audience research is based on
                 observations of individual cases, neglecting the premise of this research tra-
                 dition that analyzing media means analyzing society at the same time (cf.
                 Morley, 1992). For societal analysis, however, inference from individual
                 cases to the aggregate societal level poses a methodological problem.
                    Looking at the shortcomings of these research traditions, the lifestyle con-
                 cept promises more success. This might seem paradoxical at first, as research
                 into lifestyles stresses the role of the individual, rather than focusing on socie-
                 tal conditions, and therefore appears to be consistent with the trend of research
                 into individual media consumption. Market research often defines lifestyle sim-
                 ply as patterns of action in terms of consumption and leisure time, and some-
                 times translates the concept as ‘social milieu’ (Featherstone, 1987; Vyncke,
                 2002). Rosengren (1994) modified this concept, highlighting the fact that all
                 actions, including media use, are determined by structural, positional, and indi-
                 vidual characteristics and conditions. Figure 1 illustrates the paramount signif-
                 icance of structural characteristics, which not only have an impact on all
                 patterns of action, but also influence positional and individual characteristics
                 and give some indication as to which factors determine media consumption.
                    Rosengren’s enumeration does not claim to be complete. It seems that the
                 scale of possible factors is open-ended and may be filled as desired. To give
                 just a few examples: what is the role of media offerings and media law, popu-
                 lation density and mentality, family size, peer group or the current phase of
                 one’s life? And what role does infrastructure, including transport routes and
                 leisure-time activities play, which may present potential alternatives to media
                 consumption? Rosengren’s lifestyle model cannot compensate for the lack of
                 a theory explaining the correlation between mass communication and society.
                 However,it suggests some factors that might have had an impact on the accept-
                 ance of media offerings and their credibility. Unlike positional characteristics,
                                                     FIGURE 1
                               Determinants of patterns of action (Rosengren, 1994)
                     Societal               Individual        Individual
                     structure              position          characteristics
                                                                                     Patterns of
                     Industrialization      Sex               Values                 action
                     Urbanization           Age               Beliefs
                     Religion               Education
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