Page 269 - Comparing Media Systems THREE MODELS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS

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EIGHT

The Forces and Limits of Homogenization

The preceding chapters have described three distinct media system mod-
els, and many variations among individual countries. It is clear, however,
that the differences among these models, and in general the degree of
variation among nation states, has diminished substantially over time.
In 1970 the differences among the three groups of countries character-
ized by our three models were quite dramatic; a generation later, by the
beginning of the twenty-first century, the differences have eroded to the
point that it is reasonable to ask whether a single, global media model is
displacing the national variation of the past, at least among the advanced
capitalist democracies discussed in this book. Increasingly, as McQuail
(1994) put it, an “international media culture” has become common to
all the countries we studied. In this chapter we will focus on this pro-
cess of convergence or homogenization, first summarizing the changes
in European media systems that tend in this direction, then moving on
to the questions of how the change can be explained, its limits and coun-
tertrends, and its implications for media theory, particularly focusing on
the debate about “differentiation” raised in Chapter 4.

THE TRIUMPH OF THE LIBERAL MODEL

The Liberal Model has clearly become increasingly dominant across
Europe as well as North America – as it has, no doubt, across much
of the world – its structures, practices, and values displacing, to a sub-
stantial degree, those of the other media systems we have explored in
the previous chapters. Important qualifications need to be added to this
claim; as we shall see later on, there are significant countertendencies
that limit the spread of the Liberal Model in many countries or even
transform that model itself. But in general, it is reasonable to summarize

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