Page 216 - Comparing Media Systems THREE MODELS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS

P1: GCV/KAA P2: kaf
0521835356c07.xml Hallin 0 521 83535 6 January 21, 2004 16:24

SEVEN

The North Atlantic or Liberal Model

The Liberal or as it is often called the Anglo-American model of the
mass media is in some sense the only model that has really been ana-
lyzed in media studies as such, as a coherent model. Indeed, while other
media systems have rarely been conceptualized as coherent wholes, it
could be said that the “Anglo-American” model has been treated as far
more coherent and unitary than it actually is. There are in fact substan-
tial differences between the United States – which is a purer example of
a liberal system – and Britain, where statist conservatism, liberal cor-
poratism, and social democracy have been stronger than in the United
States. Canada and Ireland, the other two examples of liberal media sys-
temsthatwillbediscussedhere–arealsoquitedistinctincertainways.In
both countries, for example, issues of national identity result in substan-
tial modifications of the Liberal Model. All of these countries, moreover,
have substantial internal differences. This is probably most obvious in
the case of Britain, with its sharp distinction between the quality and the
mass press and striking – though diminishing – differences between the
regimes governing print and broadcast media.
Nevertheless, there are important common features of the media sys-
tems in the four countries covered in this chapter, countries whose me-
dia histories are obviously bound together by strong political and cul-
tural ties. In each, commercial newspapers developed relatively early,
expanded with relatively little state involvement, and became over-
whelmingly dominant, marginalizing party, trade union, religious, and
other kinds of noncommercial media. In each, an informational style
of journalism has become dominant and traditions of political neu-
trality tend to be strong – though with a very important exception in
the British press. In all four countries journalistic professionalism is
relatively strongly developed. In three of the four – Ireland being the

198