Lithuania: media-politics interaction shaped by benefts-oriented reasoning

Abstract

Tis chapter discusses how media and political information sources navigate change and adjust their needs-oriented behaviour to changing conditions. Te results presented are based on 20 qualitative interviews with leading political journalists as well as government advisors and spokespersons in Lithuania. Although media and political sources gain power in diferent situations, both sides function in reciprocal interconnectedness. Formal contacts are quite consistent and professionalised, but they continue to work in the shadow of informal social networks, which create their own power relationships, dynamics and hierarchical structures. Tough the fndings are contextually fashioned, the views regarding the interaction indicate broader trends of communication professionalisation identifed also in other cultures and political conditions.