This paper makes several contributions to the arising debate about the quality and variations of democratization and media performance in Central and Eastern Europe. As its first objective it provides a critical interpretation of the trend entitled ‘individuation of consumption,’ recognizing serious risks and dangers that changing conditions and social developments, such as individualization of media choices and media use and thus of media fragmentation, impose on the functioning of democracy in Europe. It specifically looks at the CEE experience – at transitional societies that are often described as lacking a sound and solid social and ideological basis, with weak economies and a political culture characterized by elite polarization and clientelism – and makes a presumption that those countries seem to be highly susceptible to negative effects of social and cultural transformations. It combines two perspectives of analysis – institutional and cultural – and, by observing the particularities of contextual conditions in the selected countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), questions whether a perfect combination of contextual arrangements could be discovered to enlighten our knowledge about alternatives in democratization and media performance across the CEE.