Martin Marinos

Martin Marinos’ research and teaching areas include global and comparative media studies, political economy of media, media theory, transnational television history, critical cultural studies, socialist and postsocialist media, and race and nationalism. Using a multi-method approach—archival research, ethnographic observation, and interviews with journalists, media managers, and politicians—his book "Free to Hate: How Media Liberalization Enabled Right-Wing Populism in Postsocialist Bulgaria" (University of Illinois Press, Nov. 2023) explores how media commercialization in Central and Eastern Europe helped fuel the far-right’s rise.

His work has appeared in Journal of Communication Inquiry, Journalism Studies, Communication, Capitalism and Critique, Global Media Journal, VIEW Journal of European Television, History, and Culture, Digital Icons, Social History, Radical Philosophy, and Southeastern Europe. At Penn State, he teaches graduate seminars in global media and undergraduate courses including Global Media, Culture, and Society, Political Economy of Communication, and Comparative National Media in a Global Context.

Marinos earned his Ph.D. in communication and a Ph.D. certificate in cultural studies from the University of Pittsburgh in 2016. His dissertation received multiple awards, including the Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship, a University of Pittsburgh Andrew Mellon Predoctoral Fellowship and a Dissertation Fellowship from the American Research Center in Sofia, Bulgaria. From 2017 to 2019, he was a postdoctoral research scholar at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute, where he also taught in the School of International and Public Affairs.

Marinos also explores theory through creative practice. He was the screenwriter of "Flame," an award-winning short documentary about a Bulgarian artist who self-immolated during the 2013 protests against utility costs. The film received the Audience Award at the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival and screened internationally. He is currently co-producing a second documentary on the Bulgarian “Kukeri” mumming tradition and rural decline.

• Academic Profile

• Free to Hate: How media liberalization enabled right-wing populism in post-1989 Bulgaria (a book extract)
• How Bulgaria hit rock bottom on press freedom
• Bulgaria to Bellisario College: Martin Marinos connects media, politics and the world
• Bellisario College honors faculty and staff for consistent excellence

Books

• Marinos, M. (November 2023) Free to Hate: Media Liberalization and Right-Wing Populism after 1989 (Champaign, IL, University of Illinois Press).

Articles

• Marinos, M. “Ethnography of Media Production: An Endangered Species?” Journal of Communication Inquiry, online first, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1177/01968599251347286
• Marinos, M. “The People’s Advocate: Exploring Journalistic Roles in Socialist Bulgaria,” Journalism Studies, online first, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2025.2519934.
• Marinos, M. and Spassov, O. (Special Issue Editors) “The Media in Southeastern Europe – Socialism, Transition, Capitalism: An Introduction,” Southeastern Europe 47 (August 2023), 1-26.https://doi.org/10.30965/18763332-47010001
• Marinos, M. “Roma, Race and Socially Engaged Television on the Fringes of Europe,” VIEW Journal of European Television History and Culture 10, n.19 (2021), 104-130. https://doi.org/10.18146/view.272
• Marinos, M. “New Media, New Habits: Socialist Television and the Struggle for ‘Harmonious’ Consumption,” Digital Icons: Studies in Russian, Eurasian and Central European Media 15 (October 2016), 37-55.