Page 272 - Comparing Media Systems THREE MODELS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS

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TheFutureofthe ThreeModels

how to account for social and political power. Nevertheless, the idea
that media systems in Europe have become increasingly differentiated
from the political system, and in this respect have come to resemble the
Liberal Model, is a good way to begin the discussion of the process of
convergence.
What forces propel the homogenization of media systems, or
their convergence toward the Liberal Model? Most accounts focus
on “Americanization” and modernization, which in turn are closely
connected with globalization and commercialization (Negrine and
Papathanassopoulos 1996; Swanson and Mancini 1996; Blumler and
Gurevitch 2001). We will attempt to clarify how these four processes –
along with a fifth related process we will call secularization – have af-
fected European media systems and how they are related to one another.
We will begin with Americanization, and, more generally, with an exam-
ination of exogenous forces of homogenization, that is, forces outside of
European societies that have pushed in the direction of convergence with
the Liberal Model. We will then turn to endogenous factors, including
the “secularization” of European society and politics and the commer-
cialization of European media. The last two sections of this chapter will
focus on limits and countertendencies to the process of homogenization
and on the concepts of modernization and differentiation.

EXOGENOUS FORCES OF HOMOGENIZATION:
AMERICANIZATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF A
GLOBAL CULTURE OF JOURNALISM
The notion of “Americanization” has been a popular starting point for
analysis of media system change in Europe since the end of the 1960s,
when the cultural imperialism perspective focused attention on the cul-
tural power of the United States and its impact on media systems around
theworld(Schiller1969,1973,1976;Boyd-Barrett1977;Tunstall1977).It
clearlycapturesanimportantpartoftheprocess.NotonlyhaveEuropean
media and communication processes come to resemble American pat-
ternsinimportantways,butthereisclearevidenceofdirectAmericanin-
fluence,startingatleastfromthelatenineteenthcentury,whenAmerican
forms of journalism were widely imitated. This pattern continued in
the interwar period with the growing strength of Hollywood and of
U.S. news agencies, accelerated after World War II as the United States
became the world’s political, economic, and cultural hegemon (Schou
1992), and in some ways accelerated further still with the global shift to

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