The article applies Piotr Sztompka’s theory of social becoming on a discussion of media change in the Baltic region. Concentrating on three recurrent categories in the literature on the transformation of the Baltic media landscape – glasnost, mass media and social movements – the article seeks to explore how these categories contributed to shaping the current media landscape. Sztompka’s model of social becoming is an attempt at developing a tool for studying social change without being historically deterministic and at the same time getting round the dichotomisation of structure and actor in social theory. Previously, the model has been applied on analyses of social movements and revolutions. In the article, it is attempted to extend the use to the study of mass media in the Baltic states. It is argued that media change in the Baltic states was an event that drew on external factors such as glasnost and public involvement in social movements, but that the impact of these external factors cannot be separated from each other or from developments inside the media system itself