Page 132 - Comparing Media Systems THREE MODELS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS

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The Three Models

have served the political and cultural ends of authoritarian elites. Public
broadcasting – even under democratic regimes – has to a significant de-
gree also served the ends of the state, whether in the form of promoting
national culture, reinforcing state authority in a climate of polarized pol-
itics (as in Gaullist France), or promoting political pluralism and com-
promise (as in the case of RAI under the lottizazzione). In some cases –
most notoriously in France between the two world wars – journalists
and newspaper owners took payments from both political and private
interests to place publicity or propaganda disguised as news. Newspapers
also sometimes extorted payments by threatening unfavorable publicity.
Probably the most significant form of instrumentalization, however,
has been the use of media by commercial owners – sometimes private
and sometimes state-linked, as in the case of state-owned enterprises – to
wield influence in the political world. In Italy the development of large-
scale nationally circulated newspapers took place early in the twentieth
century,withthebackingofindustrialandfinancialenterprises,themost
important being two steel companies, Ilva and Perrone (Castronovo
1976). These newspapers were not profitable, and were subsidized by
their owners primarily as a means of enhancing their political influence.
Ilva, for example, was a strong proponent of an interventionist mili-
tary policy. This pattern was substantially recreated in the post–World
War II period. The Milan daily Il Giorno, for example, was founded
in 1956 by Enrico Mattei, president of the state-owned oil company
ENI, with the intent of giving the interests of the state sector a po-
litical voice. Mattei was close to sectors of the Socialist and Christian
Democratic parties. Giovanni Agnelli of Fiat controls La Stampa; Cesare
Romiti, now a fashion mogul, once general manager of Fiat, controls
Il Corriere della Sera; Carlo DeBenedetti of Olivetti controls L’Espresso
and La Repubblica (La Repubblica started out as a “pure publisher,” but
De Benedetti’s Mondadori acquired it in 1989); and Raul Ferruzi of
Montedison Chemicals controlled Il Messaggero for many years (now
it belongs to a real-estate concern). Each is a player in Italian politics
and control of a newspaper plays a key role in his ability to influence
the political process. Private television, of course, is dominated by Silvio
Berlusconi, who has used his media empire as a springboard to create
his own political party and win the prime ministership. Berlusconi also
controls Il Giornale (through his brother) and made an unsuccessful
attempt in 1989 to take over La Repubblica.
The Greek situation is very similar: industrialists with interests in
shipping, travel, construction, telecommunication, and oil industries

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