Page 247 - Comparing Media Systems THREE MODELS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS

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The North Atlantic or Liberal Model

recognition by the state that the press is an important social institution,
for example the right to protect the confidentiality of sources, which is
provided by “shield” laws in many states (such a law also exists in Britain,
but not in Canada).
If the role of the state cannot be dismissed, it is nevertheless true that
United States media history is characterized by important limitations
on the state’s role. Very important here is the legal tradition connected
with the First Amendment, which clearly distinguishes the United States
media system from most European ones. European constitutions always
have guarantees of press freedom, but this is generally one legal prin-
ciple among others, to be balanced against principles of privacy, social
welfare, political pluralism, public order etc. Both legal doctrine and po-
litical culture in the United States tend to treat the First Amendment in
a more absolutist way, and this means that many kinds of media regula-
tion that are common in Europe – privacy rules, regulations on political
advertising, free time requirements for political communication, and
right-of-reply laws (one such law passed in Florida was struck down by
the courts) – are politically and legally untenable in the United States.
One area where the state in the United States has at certain moments
played a very important role is in the regulation of media concentration.
Two of these moments are the separation of NBC’s “white” and “blue”
networks by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) in 1945,
and the Paramount Decrees of 1948 separating the Hollywood studios
from movie theater ownership. The antitrust conviction of Microsoft
looked at one time as if it might prove another example of this tradi-
tion, but the Bush administration took a softer line and the case ended
without dramatic results. It could probably be argued that the U.S. state
historically has intervened as actively against media concentration as
most European states. Of course, antitrust intervention is not incompat-
ible with the prevailing liberal ideology in the United States, and is also
particularly persuasive given the size of United States media markets.
The United States was the only industrialized country of any size to
develop a privately owned telephone and telegraph system, and then
a predominantly commercial broadcasting system. The public broad-
casting system (PBS) was established only in 1967 and has remained
weak by comparative standards. Less than 50 percent of its funding now
comes from government sources (in 1990 16 percent came from the fed-
eral government and 30 percent came from state and local governments,
withtherestcomingfromviewers,corporatedonations,andcommercial
sources) and total expenditure has been about $1 per capita – compared

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