Page 28 - Comparing Media Systems THREE MODELS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS

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Comparing Media Systems

press systems is one of philosophy’ the book disregards the material
existence of the media” (Nerone 1995: 23).
Nor was their analysis actually comparative. In part, this was because
of the background of the Cold War: because it is so preoccupied with the
dichotomybetweenthecontendingU.S.andSovietmodels,FourTheories
of the Press has little room for the actual diversity of world media systems.
In tracing the origins of the four theories, for example, Siebert, Peterson,
and Schramm make reference almost exclusively to three countries – the
United States, to which they trace the libertarian and social responsibility
theories; Britain, to which they trace both the authoritarian and, along
with the United States, the libertarian theories; and the Soviet Union.
All the models, moreover, are really “defined . . . from within one of
the four theories – classical liberalism” (Nerone 1995: 21). The four
theories are of limited use in understanding the European experience.
One could say that Western Europe has combined the libertarian model
(manifested in the relatively unregulated commercial and party press
andthetraditionofadvocacyjournalism);thesocialresponsibilitymodel
(publicbroadcasting,right-of-replylaws,presssubsidies,presscouncils);
and the authoritarian tradition (Gaullist state broadcasting or the British
Official Secrets Act, as well as the controls exercised in periods of real
dictatorship). One could probably say that any system combines these
elements in some way. But this is far too thin a framework to begin a real
comparative analysis.
Four Theories of the Press has stalked the landscape of media studies
like a horror-movie zombie for decades beyond its natural lifetime. We
think it is time to give it a decent burial and move on to the development
of more sophisticated models based on real comparative analysis. 5

MEDIA SYSTEM MODELS
One reason Four Theories of the Press has proved so influential over so
many years is that there is a great deal of appeal in the idea that the
world’s media systems can be classified using a small number of simple,
discreet models. Is it possible to replace the four theories with a new
set of models, better-grounded empirically but sharing something of the
parsimony of the originals? Only with great caution. We will in fact in-
troduce three media system models. These will be elaborated more fully

5
A discussion of the historical background of the book and further critical analysis can
be found in Nerone (1995).

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