Page 192 - Comparing Media Systems THREE MODELS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS

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The Three Models

university course in journalism was started in 1930 in G¨ oteborg, and
the first full degree programs introduced in 1960. In Norway formal
journalism education dates from 1951. In the Netherlands journalism
education was conducted within the “pillars” until the first nonaffiliated
program was established in Utrecht in 1966.
The level of journalistic autonomy is also relatively high in the Demo-
cratic Corporatist countries. Donsbach and Patterson’s (1992) survey of
journalists in Britain, Germany, Italy, and the United States found that
German journalists were the least likely to report that pressures from
senior managers and editors were an important limitation on their work
with 7 percent of German journalists reporting such influence from se-
nior editors, compared with 14 percent in the United States, 22 percent
in Britain, and 35 percent in Italy. They – along with Swedish journalists
(Donsbach 1995) – were also the least likely to report that the news they
prepared was changed by another person in the newsroom: “the news
they prepare is usually printed or broadcast without interference.” This
finding is consistent with Esser’s (1998) research on British and German
newsrooms, which showed that German newsrooms lacked the hierar-
chical structure of British ones, and that German journalists tended to
15
work as individuals with minimal supervision. The culture of German
journalism is strongly shaped by the experience of totalitarianism and
the value placed on autonomy is in part related to that legacy. German
journalists also have strong job security, as is true in general of workers in
the Democratic Corporatist countries, and this probably increases their
autonomy, though newspapers, as tendenz or “ideological” enterprises,
are exempted from laws on worker participation in management that ap-
ply to other industries (a good illustration of the assumption in German
culture that it is the function of a newspaper to exercise “ideological

15 In his comparative study of the newsroom organization in Great Britain and Germany
Esserfindstwoverydifferentsetsofroutines.Themaindifferenceliesinamuchclearer
division of roles in Great Britain than in Germany: in Germany there is not a pre-
cise division between the roles of reporter, editor, and commentator. Even if German
newspapers distinguish in their layout between news stories and commentaries, in
terms of organizational structure the separation of these functions is not strong. Esser
relates this to different professional cultures, German professional culture being more
inclined historically to commentary and evaluation. Moreover, most of the press in
Great Britain has been set on the model of the main national papers that have func-
tioned as models both in content and in organizational procedures. Because of their
large resources, national newspapers have been able to provide a segmented organi-
zation with professionals performing very specified roles. In contrast the prevalence
of the regional press in Germany has meant a smaller and more flexible organization
with less division of labor.

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