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Media Systems in Comparative Perspective
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Chapter 1: IntroductionWhat qualifies as a system:
- A system is a whole, made up of interconnecting parts (reducibility)
- There are necessary and dependent relationships between the parts that make up a system (stability)
- The parts are in motion, if one part changes so do the others (variety and flexibility)
- There are limits to the amount of change a system can take (constant)
- Systems are open, they relate to their environment (makes them vulnerable)
What is a media system: ‘a systems is a methodological tool, used for comparative research’
- A country’s media institutions and practices: Hardy (2022):’A media system comprises all mass media organised and
operating within a given social ad political systems’ (usually state)
- Media system has a to be conceived as a ‘whole’; includes several features that cannot be considered separately
(machine 2020)
- A media systems also includes procedures, routines, cultures that connect these media outlets to the surrounding
context (hardy 2012)
- It recreates and modifies itself through reactions to changes in other social systems. Systems maintain coherence while
continuously adapting themselves to the external influences (Hallin 2020)
According to Hallin & Mancini (2004): A media systems is a countries complex structure of media institutions and practices
that interact with a shape one another, and which is structually and historically linked to the political and economic system
- There are characteristics patterns of relationships between media systems, political systems and economic system.
- Media systems are not homogenous, not the results of a single ideology or philosophy
- Media systems are composed of many elements, differing in normative expectations and regulation
- Media systems result from meaningful patterns of historical developments (path dependency)
- National media systems are subject to change (globalisation)
Comparative analysis:
- Function: Concept formation and clarification
- Comparison sensitizes us to variation:
• Against ethnocentrism: which refers only to the experience of a single country, yet is written in general terms as
though the model of that prevailed in that country were universal
Rendering the ‘invisible visible’: drawing attention to aspects of any media system, including our own, that may be
taken for granted and difficult to detect when the focus is on only one national case, it can protect us from false
generalizations
- Comparison sensitizes us to similarity:
• It can encourage us to move from overly particular explanations to more general ones
- Function: Explaining causal inference
• Comparison allows us in many cases to test hypothesis about the interraltionships among social phenomena
- Comparison is done across variables (H&M Dimensions)
- Is a methodological tool
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,Aim of cross-national comparison:
- Seek to distinctions, identify similarities or differences
- Enhance our understanding of phenomena
- Search for how and why differences occur
- But:
• Refrain from subjective judgement
• Be aware of points of reference
• Avoid cultural bias/ ethnocentrism
How to asses media systems:
- know that media systems is arguably a container concepts.
- Each country has its own unique systems
- Four dimension (elements) serve as pillars for the classification in individual countries media systems
- Dimensions create particular constellations (models)
- Dimensions are able to capture the dynamics of media and politics in different contexts
Comparative research in this course:
- Primarily comparison between countries but also between three main media sub-sectors; News & Journalism,
Television, Digital (internet) media
- The delivery the bulk of content on a daily basis ➔ massive impact
Four theories of the press:
“the thesis of this volume is that the press always takes on the form and coloration of the social and political structures
within which it operates”
- one cannot understand the new media without understanding the nature of the state.
- Important trend in the direction of greater media influence
- The book disregards this theory as it has little room for the actual diversity of world media systems
System: made up of interconnecting parts
- Stability: necessary and dependent relationships between the parts that make up a system
- Variety and flexibility: the parts are in motion; if one part changes, so do the others
- Constraint: there are limits to the amount of change a system can take
- Open: systems relate to their environment
- Methodological tool, used for comparative research
Media system: a country’s complex structure of media institutions and practices that interact with and shape one another,
and which is structurally and historically linked to the political and economic system
- Made up of multiple interrelated and interdependent components
- Draws on wide range of resources to produce media content
- Characteristic patterns of relationships between media systems, political system and economic system
• e.g. types of content, consumption patterns, imports/exports, production, access, financing, policies, relation to
cultural, social, political, economic and ideological context
2
,Limitations of Data:
limitations of comparative data impose severe restrictions on our ability to draw any firm conclusions about the relations
between media and social systems; in some ways, comparative research in communication may be inherently harder than
in some fields;
- Our analysis is based primarily on existing published sources and we make only very limited attempts at new empirical
research
- we’re interested not in measuring media systems against a normative ideal, but in analysing their historical development
as institutions within particular social settings;
Globalisation:
worldwide climate in which people, industries, governments, and countries across the world are being propelled into closer
political, economic, and cultural unions.
- Media systems are affected by globalisation
- Globalisation has many dimensions
Drivers of globalisation:
Corporate profit making/economic ➔ is the main force; globalization is a business initiated activity that has the power to
transform media systems. Other drivers are:
1. Global conglomerates
• ‘Giant parent corporations, that presides over an amalgamation of wholly and partially owner subsidiaries, company its
and divisions that are scattered across the world, and that are afforded great local autonomy within individual
countries in terms of product design and distribution’ ➔ Viacom (USA), Time Warner (USA), Sony (Japan), etc.
• Differ from multinational companies & very complex organisations
• Greatly diversified through consolidation
2. Communication technologies
• Personal communication technologies facilitate international communication
• Increased availability of foreign content through advances in TV technologies
3. Audience Curiosity: Changing consumption patterns
• Overall, people have become more interested in foreign cultures and media content
• Acceleration of consumerism
• But; taste of foreign content has to be acquired
4. International travel
• allows to get to know the world a bit better, see new things and meet new people
Cross-national comparison in climate of globalisation:
- Theorist of globalisation highlight the diminishment of national boundaries and the erosion of nation state powers
- Globalisation and commercialisation of the media has led to considerable convergence of media systems (H&M)
- As well as the homogenisation of content
Comparing media systems in climate of globalisation:
- Media systems continue to be shaped by national characteristics (traditions, language, geography, economics, political
systems, power structure, and international relations)
- Media systems remain to a significant degree national in organisation and orientation
- Nation states still determine to a high degree media industries and markets are organised and what media services are
provided and received
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, Chapter 2: Comparing Media systems
How to asses media systems:
- know that media systems is arguably a container concepts.
- Each country has its own unique systems
- Four dimension (elements) serve as pillars for the classification in individual countries media systems
- Dimensions create particular constellations (models)
- Dimensions are able to capture the dynamics of media and politics in different contexts
Four dimensions of media systems: Media markets | Political parallelism | Media professionalisation | Role of the state
1. Media markets:
How is a media produced, financed, consumed? Market structures incl; ownerships, concentration, market shares,
audience behaviour, and media access, use, etc. Quantity, nature of the newspaper, its relation to its audience and its
role in the wider process of social and political communication.
Emphasis on the strong or weak development of a mass circulation press: newspaper circulation, reflects historical
differences in literacy rates
• Low circulation ➔ Horizontal process: interelite communication (Southern Europe)
• High circulation ➔ Vertical process: mediation between political elites and ordinary citizens (Northern Europe and
North America)
2. Political parallelism:
The extent to which the media system reflects the major political divisions in society / the degree to which the structure
of the media system paralleled that of the party system. Media’s engagement and alliances with social groups or the
relations between the media, journalist, and the political sphere, including political communication, and political
structure. How and in what ways is content of media aligned with politics.
• Political parallelism definitions:
- The degree and nature of the links between the media and political parties
- the extent to which the media systems reflects the major political divisions in society.
- Large variations in the degree to which media represent distinct political orientation
• Extra: no serious media analyst would argue that journalism anywhere in the world is neutral
• Party press parallelism: indicates that new media have clear political orientation so that the structure of the media
system paralleled that of the party systems.Uncommon today, so better to speak of political parallelism, indicating that
media can be associated with general political tendencies.
• Five components of political parallelism: As indicators of how political parallelism is in a media system
1. Media content: distinct political orientations in the media news, reports, etc.
2. Organisational connections: Connections between media and political parties, churches, etc. Most connections
don’t exist anymore but influences are still visible
3. Political activism: Media staff being active in political life. Uncommon , but today political opinions/affiliations can
shape careers.
4. Partisanship of media audiences: audiences might watch specific tv channels and buy specific newspapers linked
to own political orientation
5. Journalistic role orientations and practices: High political parallelism: writing style and journalistic culture linked to
political systems. Reporting or commenting?
• High political parallelism ➔ External pluralism: pluralism achieved at the level of the media system as a whole,
through the existence of a range of media outlets or organizations reflecting the points of view of different groups or
tendencies in society,
- each media outlet is linked to different groups or tendencies in society - achieved at system level as a whole
• Low political parallelism ➔ Internal pluralism: pluralism achieved within each individual media outlet or
organization; media organizations both avoid institutional ties to political groups and attempt to maintain neutrality
and balance in their content
- each media outlet includes different opinions and views - no ties to political party
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