Media Systems in Comparative Perspective
Chapter 1: Introduction & Chapter 2: Comparing Media Systems
What qualifies as a system:
• Irreducibility: a system is a whole, made up of interconnecting parts
• Stability: there are 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
• Systems are open, they relate to their environment
System = is a methodological tool, used for comparative research
System characteristics
What is a media system
• A country’s media institutions and practices; ‘’a media system comprises all mass media organized and
operating within a given social and political system (usually a state)’’. (Hardy, 2012)
• Media systems has to be conceived as a ‘whole’; it includes several features that cannot be considered
separately. (Mancini, 2020)
• A media system also includes procedures, routines, and cultures that connect these media outlets to
the surrounding context. (Hardy, 2012)
• It re-creates and modifies itself through reactions to changes in other social systems. Systems
maintain coherence while continuously adapting themselves to external influences. (Hallin, 2020)
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 of the political and economic
system.
➢ There are characteristic patterns of relationships between media system, political system, and
economic system
➢ They are not homogeneous, not the result of a single ideology or philosophy
➢ They are composed of many elements, differing in normative expectations and regulation
➢ They result from meaningful patterns of historical development (path dependency)
➢ National media systems are subject to change (globalisation)
The four dimensions:
1. Media markets: how is media produced, financed, consumed
o Market structures including ownership, concentration, market shares, audience behaviour and
media access, use, etc.
o The development of the mass circulation press.
o Horizontal process of debate -> among elite factions (among the same social groups)
o Vertical process of communication -> between political elites and the ordinary citizen
o Language factors: divide markets into separate segments (Switzerland, Belgium) or increase the
importance of competition from outside a particular national market (Ireland, Austria, Canada, Belgium)
2. Political parallelism: how and in what ways is content of media aligned with politics
o Media’s engagement and alliances with social groups or the relationship between the media,
journalists, and the political sphere, including political communication and political culture
3. Media professionalization: rules and norms of operation and evaluation of media outputs
o E.g. professional autonomy, routines, norms, associations.
o The issue of instrumentalization: the political control of media by political or outside actors for
their own political agenda or commercial benefits
4. State intervention in the media: media’s relations with actors and institutions of political power
o Including media policy & funding censorship and regulation
o Most important form: public service broadcasting
,Political parallelism = the degree and nature of links between the media and political parties or,
more broadly, the extent to which the media system reflects the major political divisions in society.
• ‘’No serious media analysis would argue that journalism anywhere in the world is literally neutral’’
Large variations in the degree to which media represent distinct political orientation
External pluralism = each media outlet is linked to different groups or tendencies in society. High level of
political parallelism. Pluralism achieved at the system level as a whole. (E.g. USA newspapers)
Internal pluralism = each media outlet includes range of different opinions and views. Pluralism is
achieved within each media outlet. No ties to political parties, neutral (E.g. Italy newspapers)
(For example national newspaper markets are more likely than local markets to be compatible with external pluralism in the press)
Concept of party press parallelism (1970’s): indicates that news media have clear political
orientations so that the structure of the media system paralleled that of the party systems.
o Uncommon today, so better to speak of political parallelism, indicating that media can be associated
with general political tendencies
Components of political parallelism
1. Media content: distinct political orientations in the media news, reports, etc.
2. Organizational 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 career
4. Partisanship of media audiences: audiences might watch specific TV channels and consume specific
news linked to own political orientation
5. Journalistic role orientations and practices: high political parallelism: writing style and journalistic
culture linked to political system (reporting or commenting). Some journalists see themselves as providers
of neutral information and entertainment, while others try to influence the public opinion.
Parallelism in broadcast governance and regulation→ different models on how public broadcasting is
organised
Government model:
o Broadcasting is directly controlled by the government / political majority
o Still exists in modified form, political appointment of board, directors
Professional model
o Broadcasting is insulated from political control
o Run by media/broadcasting professional (BCC, CBC)
Parliamentary / proportional representation model
o Divided among the political parties
o Directors are appointed by proportional representation
o Channels are divided among parties
o Power sharing
Civic model
o Similar to parliamentary model; control of public service broadcasting is distributed among
various social and political groups.
o But division is extended beyond the political groups or socially relevant groups: trade unions,
ethnic associations, etc.
o E.g. The Netherlands: pillarized system
, ➔ All models are solutions to the problem of how to keep public broadcasting, or a regulatory
authority from falling under the control of the most powerful political force and failing to
serve a politically diverse society
➔ Professional model => solves problem by attempting to insulate broadcasting from political
interests in order to keep the parties and other organized interests out of the process of
producing television and radio.
➔ Parliamentary and civic model => solves problem by making sure that all the major groups
within society are included in the process
Professionalization and political parallelism
➢ Where political parallelism is very high, media organization are strongly tied to political organization,
and journalists are deeply involved in party politics -> professionalization is indeed likely to be low:
journalists are likely to lack autonomy, and journalism is likely to lack a distinct common culture and
distinct sense of social purpose.
➢ Key element: the notion of journalism as a public trust; the existence of shared standards of
professional practice and the emphasis on journalistic autonomy
Dimensions of professionalization
1) Autonomy: one of the key reasons why many occupations try to ‘professionalize’ themselves, to justify greater
control over their work process.
2) Distinct professional norms: occupations which organize themselves ‘horizontally’, with a certain style of life,
code of ethics, and self-conscious identity and barriers to outsiders. The horizontal organization has a set of
shared norms distinct to the profession.
3) Public service orientation: the notion that professions are oriented toward an ethic of public service
How to assess a media system
- NOTE: media system is arguably a container concept
- Each country has its own unique system
- Four dimensions (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.
Public service broadcasting (PSB) = refers to ‘’a system that is set up by law and generally financed
by public funds (often compulsory license fee paid by households) and given a large degree of
editorial and operating independence”
➢ PSB is supposed to function independently of both the market and the state, and therefore differs
from the alternative systems of commercial broadcasting on the one hand and authorisation or state-
operated broadcasting on the other
➢ Principles: universality, diversity, independent and distinctiveness
➢ Press subsidies, subsidies for film industry
➢ The state are also advertisers
- Relatively liberal media systems -> state intervention is limited, media are left primarily to market
forces
- And systems in which social democratic or dirigiste traditions are manifested in a larger state role in
the ownership, funding, and regulation of media.
Basic functions of comparative analysis
➢ Concept formation and clarification
➢ Explaining causal inference
• Comparative analysis makes us understand variation and similarity within media systems:
o We can notice things we didn’t notice before and therefore had not conceptualized
o It forces us to clarify the scope and applicability of the concepts we employ
, The relevance of (cross-national) comparison
Comparison is a basic social-scientific research activity
Research is always comparative (be implicitly)
Cross national comparison is a methodological tool
Comparison is always done across variables
Aims of cross-national comparisons
Seek for distinctions, identify similarities or differences
Enhance our understanding of phenomena
Search for how and why differences occur
But:
Refrain from subjective judgment
Be aware of points of reference
Avoid cultural bias/ethnocentrism
In this course, there is primarily comparison between countries, but also between three main media
subsectors:
✓ News & journalism
✓ Television
✓ Digital (internet) media
They deliver the bulk of content on a daily basis => massive impact
Media systems are affected by globalization: ‘growth of ties that span space’ (Lechner, 2009)
• ‘’Worldwide climate in which people, industries, governments, and countries across the world are
being propelled into closer political, economic, and cultural unions’’ (McKenzie, 2006)
• Globalization has many definitions and many dimensions.
• Main drive is economic
Drivers of globalization
o International travel
o Communication technology
o Audience curiosity
o Global media conglomerates
Global media corporation = giant parent corporation, that presides over an amalgamation of wholly
and partially owned subsidiaries, companies, and divisions that are scattered across the world, and
that are afforded great local autonomy within individual countries in terms of product design and
distributions. (Walt Disney, US & Sony, Japan)
▪ Differ from multinational companies
▪ Very complex organizations
▪ Greatly diversified through consolidation
Personal communication technologies facilitate international communication and increase
availability of foreign content through advances in television technologies (satellite, cable, streaming).
Audience curiosity: changing consumption patterns
➢ Overall, people have become more interested in foreign cultures and media content
➢ Acceleration of consumerism
➢ But: taste for foreign content has to be acquired
