Media Law in the time of liquid modernity

Political and social changes that took place at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries and, additionally, technological revolution and the process of digitalisation have resulted in significant social, economic and legal transformations. Then, it can be even said metaphorically that together with the development of the Internet we discovered a new continent. 'Colonization' of this area resembles conquering new areas in times of great geographical discoveries. At first, power and violence were prevailing and only later people tried to introduce effective methods of law enforcement. Nowadays, the next problem is the non-territoriality of phenomena on the Internet. From the point of view of legal actions, it is generally limited to a legal system of a given country, and seems to be a fundamental issue. As it appears, law and legal systems do not handle the challenges of global space and it is rather a gunslinger's speed that turns out to be essential here. However, it should be hoped that with time, as in the case of the real world experience, power will be replaced with powerful arguments based on effective legal mechanisms in particular. All the more so, as these changes happen very rapidly. Thus, referring to the known concept of liquid modernity by Zygmunt Bauman, it can also be said that by regulating the media subject in the field of law to fundamental changes, we are confronted with the uncertainty of legal institutions concerning this part of social life. Hence, we should return to the basics and again pose fundamental questions about media law such as, for instance, what should the press, radio, television be called, and who can be treated as a journalist. Additionally, we should face new legal phenomena and challenges.

The collective work we are passing to the readers is an attempt to analyse the current state and present a forecast about further changes as well as answers to at least several questions posed above. Being aware of the fact that it is impossible to deal with or even settle all the aforementioned problems in such a study, the editors hope that, thanks to reviews and deliberations of the authors, the book will significantly contribute to the discussion on media law in the 21st century. The authors of individual chapters of this book are researchers from various Polish scientific institutions and members of the Polish PressLawAssociation.