Media pushing for political transformation: A comparative analysis of issue contestation in Poland before 1989 and Egypt before 2011

Abstract

This article compares two cases of media reporting on the crucial contesting issue of brutality carried out by security forces that proved to be relevant for delegitimizing the regimes in both Poland in 1989 and Egypt in 2011. We show that, despite the different technological infrastructure available and the distinct institutionalization of the political and media systems, we can observe similar mechanisms of mass media communication unfolding around a contesting issue that shook the pillars of moral legitimacy of the regimes, thus paving the way for political transformation.