Page 189 - Comparing Media Systems THREE MODELS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS

P1: GLB/IRK/kaa P2: KAF
0521835356c06.xml Hallin 0 521 83535 6 January 28, 2004 21:0

The North/Central European Model

Chalaby gives regarding early French journalism, in which journalists
were employed in many different activities, often in fields of art, litera-
ture, and politics, and a distinct professional identity was slow to develop
(Chalaby 1996). At the same time, despite the ideological, religious, and
political divisions that existed within the world of journalism, many
opportunities opened up for social contact among those working as full-
time journalists. Høyer and Lorentzen note that the first association of
Norwegian journalists was formed in 1883, a year before the introduc-
tion of the parliament, and “a year of unbridgeable political cleavages”
(1977: 102). “The confluence of these events does not appear altogether
logical,” they note. “A period of bitter political conflicts in the press is
followed immediately by efforts to unite journalists, why not before or
after?” They go on to explain that “the party conflicts brought editors
and political reporters from the whole nation together. It was of sec-
ondary importance that Parliament served as their meeting place, more
important was the concurrent situation where common interests could
be discovered and discussed” (102).
The first unions of journalists were founded in Scandinavia and other
parts of Northern Europe, and such organizations are very strong today
compared with their counterparts in the Liberal or Polarized Pluralist
countries. The formation of the first professional association in Norway
in 1883 preceded the Institute of Journalists in Britain by seven years.
In the Netherlands the first journalists’ union (NJK) was established in
1894;otherunionsfollowedlater,establishedonthebasisofreligiousand
13
political affiliation. In Germany a central journalists organization, the
Verband deutscher Journalisten- und Schriftstellervereine was formed
in 1895. In Sweden a Publicists’ Club was established in 1874, uniting
journalists and publishers and centrally concerned with ethical issues in
journalism (Weibull and B¨ orjesson 1992); the Union of Journalists was
founded in 1901 (Høyer & Lorentzen 1977). The Finnish journalists’
union was founded in 1921. Often these unions did suffer from politi-
cal divisions in their first decades, but by the 1930s–40s, as democratic
corporatism was becoming fully consolidated, they usually developed
14
into strong, unified organizations. The oldest press club, “Presseclub

13 With the depillarization process the different unions underwent a process of integra-
tion and in 1965 the three main journalist organizations formed one single union: the
Nederlandse Vereniging van Journalisten (NVJ).
14
Høyer and Lorentzen describe the development of professionalism in Scandinavia as
being delayed by the political connections and divisions of the press. But in compar-
ative context, that development actually occurred early and strongly.

171