Page 246 - Comparing Media Systems THREE MODELS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS

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The Three Models

THE ROLE OF THE STATE
The Liberal countries are, by definition, those in which the social role
of the state is relatively limited and the role of the market and private
sector relatively large. Britain was the birthplace of industrial capitalism
and the United States the center of its twentieth-century growth. Market
institutionsandliberalideologydevelopedstronglyinbothcountries–in
general, and specifically in the media field, where they are manifested in
the early development of commercial media industries and of the liberal
theoryofafreepressrootedincivilsocietyandthemarket.Statesubsidies
to the press have been minimal in all four Liberal countries through most
of the twentieth century. Commercial broadcasting has always been the
dominant form in the United States and to a lesser degree in Canada,
and was introduced in Britain a generation before most of continental
Europe; Ireland resisted its introduction much longer.
The state has always played a significant role in the development of
capitalist society, however, and its role in the development of the media
is important even in the most distinctively liberal societies. There is also
considerable variation among the four countries covered here in the role
of the state. Even in the United States, clearly the purest case of the Lib-
eral Model, the role of the state cannot be ignored. The state built the
initial communication infrastructure – the postal system – that made
possible the development of the press, as well as underwriting the devel-
opment of what could be called the human infrastructure of the press
through public education. As party newspapers developed, moreover,
the political class clearly looked upon the press not merely as a busi-
ness, but as a crucial public institution, and supported it accordingly
(Cook 1998). Subsidized postal rates, including the right for publishers
to exchange copies of newspapers between themselves without charge,
were extremely important to the survival of early newspapers, as were
government printing contracts and patronage jobs for editors (Smith
1977). These forms of sponsorship began to fade in importance after
1860, with the establishment of the Government Printing Office, the ini-
tiation of civil service reform, and the development of newspaper-owned
distribution networks, which diminished the importance of subsidized
postal rates (though the latter remain in effect). The postal service did
acquire a new regulatory role in 1912 when newspapers were required to
file sworn statements of circulation and ownership, which facilitated the
development of a transparent advertising market (Lawson 1993). Jour-
nalists have also been granted certain legal rights that imply a continued

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