Page 117 - Comparing Media Systems THREE MODELS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS

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The Mediterranean or Polarized Pluralist Model

Table 5.1 Functions of Paragraphs in U.S. and French News Stories

Reporting Only Background Interpretation Opinion
Le Monde 76.6% 7.5 17.1 6.6
Le Figaro 70.0 11.3 13.4 5.2
The New York Times 90.3 4.5 4.8 0.4

Anglo-American model were embraced. Articles of pure “doctrine or
reflection” gave way to a form of journalism that combined reporting
and commentary. But a strong emphasis on commentary remained, as
did an emphasis on style, creating a French model of journalism dis-
tinct from the Anglo-American. Information-oriented journalism, as
we shall see in greater detail near the end of this chapter, has made even
greater inroads into French journalism in the last couple of decades of
the twentieth century, as investigative reporting, for example, has be-
come common. But French journalism still includes a relatively strong
emphasis on commentary that reflects its political roots. Table 5.1 shows
the results of a content analysis of The New York Times, Le Monde, and Le
Figaro, with samples from coverage of national politics in the 1960s and
1990s, showing the percent of paragraphs devoted to four journalistic
functions: reporting events and statements, giving background, giving
interpretation (usually involving comments about the motives, causes,
4
or consequences of an action or event), and giving opinions. In all three
papers, the reporting function predominated, accounting for 90 per-
cent of The New York Times paragraphs and more than 70 percent of
those in the French papers. The French press, however, clearly put more
emphasis on background, interpretation, and opinion, the latter, for ex-
ample, accounting for 6.6 percent of paragraphs in Le Monde and less
than 1 percent in The New York Times. When Times stories were coded
for opinion it usually involved the journalist drawing conclusions about
disputed facts; in the French press it was more likely to involve policy
advocacy or value judgments about political actions. We did not find

4 The sample includes 318 stories and 1,479 paragraphs from Le Monde; 308 stories
and 1,350 paragraphs from Le Figaro; and 358 stories and 3,189 paragraphs from
The New York Times. Dates were selected randomly from 1965–7 and 1995–7, and
every other story dealing with national politics was coded. Paragraphs were coded for
their predominant function and in paragraphs that clearly had multiple functions,
more active forms of journalism were coded over less active forms – opinion over
interpretation, over background, over simple reporting. Coding of the French papers
was done by Rod Benson and coding of the U.S. paper was done by Mauro Porto.

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