Page 293 - Comparing Media Systems THREE MODELS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS

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The Forces and Limits of Homogenization

as well, forcing it to adopt much of the logic of the commercial
system.
Beyond the changes in the social structure that we have already out-
lined, many forces combined to produce this change in the European
broadcasting system. In the first place, competing forms of broadcasting
emerged, and these siphoned audiences away from the public broad-
casters, undercut their legitimacy, and contributed to a change in the
perception of media programming, which with the multiplication of
channels – by one count a shift from 35 channels in 1975 to 150 in 1994
(Weymouth and Lamizet 1996: 24) – came to seem less like a social insti-
tution, a public good provided for and shared by everyone in society, and
more like a commodity that could be chosen by individual consumers.
The development of the VCR no doubt also contributed to this change
of consciousness. The earliest alternative forms of broadcasting were
pirate radio stations, the first of which began broadcasting from ships
off the coast of Scandinavia in the late 1950s. These were advertising
funded and to some degree their popularity was fueled by the growth of
a distinct – and globalized – youth culture. In both these characteristics
they are clearly connected with the larger cultural trend toward global
consumer culture. Pirate radio proliferated substantially in many coun-
tries during the 1970s, when it was often connected not only with youth
culture but also with the new social movements of that era. The efforts
of public broadcasting to suppress pirate radio undercut their image as
a champion of political pluralism. Private radio and television stations
based in Luxembourg that started broadcasting to neighboring coun-
tries in French, German, Italian, and Dutch also undercut public service
monopolies, as did Radio Monte Carlo and Radio Capodistria (based
in Croatia), which revolutionized Italian radio in the 1970s. The phe-
nomenon of transborder broadcasting, with its tendency to undercut
the connection between broadcasting institutions and national politi-
cal systems, expanded in the 1980s with the growth of cable and direct
broadcast satellite TV.
Another important factor was the growth of strong lobbies press-
ing for change in media policy. The most important of these was the
advertising lobby, which pushed hard in many countries for access to
electronic media (Humphreys 1996: 172–3). Pilati (1987) stresses that
Italian private television stations were born when various commercial
and manufacturing companies were making enough money to invest
in advertising and public broadcasting was not able to meet this new
demand for air time. In many cases advertising interests were joined in

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