Page 241 - Comparing Media Systems THREE MODELS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS

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The North Atlantic or Liberal Model

media of the United States or Canada. Journalists at The Times were
protected, in the 1960s and 1970s, when the paper was owned by the
CanadianpublisherThompson,bytheappointmentoffourindependent
national directors whose sole function was to ensure editorial indepen-
dence. The Guardian is also controlled by a trust whose statutes separate
editorial and business control. No such formal protection of editorial
autonomy has ever existed in the United States. The 1960s and 1970s
are often described by British media scholars as a high point of journal-
istic autonomy, with a trend toward more centralized editorial control
developing since that time (Curran and Leys 2000: 232). In the case of
The Times, a new agreement on editorial autonomy was reached when
Murdoch bought the paper in 1979, but it proved ineffective (Shawcros
1992). In general, journalistic autonomy is probably more limited in the
British than the North American press, particularly at the tabloid papers.
Donsbach (1995) reports that British journalists were second, after Ital-
ians, in the percentage reporting that their stories were changed “to give a
political slant,” 6 percent saying that this happened at least occasionally,
as compared with 8 percent in Italy, 2 percent in the United States and
Germany, and 1 percent in Sweden (a lower percent of the news in Britain
concerns politics, compared with Italy, it might be noted). Another sur-
vey showed 44 percent of British journalists saying they had suffered
“improper editorial interference” with a story (Henningham and
Delano 1998: 154).
Formal organization of the profession of journalism is not devel-
oped particularly strongly in the Liberal countries, at least compared
with Democratic Corporatist systems. Professional self-regulation takes
place mainly informally, within particular news organizations and in the
wider peer culture of journalism. In the United States, in the 1980s, only
17 percent of journalists in one survey belonged to the Society of Pro-
fessional Journalists, the largest national professional association, and a
similar percentage to a trade union, usually either The Newspaper Guild
or the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (Weaver
and Wiloit 1991: 106–7). The American Society of Newspaper Editors
(ASNE) also has played a significant role in developing ethical standards
and a common journalistic culture. In Britain a professional association,
the Institute of Journalists, was formed in 1890. It was eclipsed in the
twentieth century, however, by the development of the National Union
of Journalists (NUJ), which eventually became a strong trade union
to which virtually all journalists belonged. In this sense Britain, with its
strong trade union movement, has had a stronger collective organization

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