Page 300 - Comparing Media Systems THREE MODELS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS

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TheFutureofthe ThreeModels

argues that “in adopting television-centered-campaigning the parties
have moved away from the traditional emphases on public rallies and
personal contacts with party workers, thus lessening opportunities for
citizens to participate directly in campaigns and further distancing the
parties from voters.” Others (e.g., Brants 1998) have argued that the
dramatization of politics and the migration of political discussion into
“infotainment” venues in which the voice of the ordinary citizen has a
greater role is likely to increase popular involvement in politics.
The difficulty of sorting out the effects of commercialization arises
partly from the fact that it arose in the context of a complex set of
changes in Western societies and interacts with those changes. This is
well illustrated by the phenomenon of pirate radio, which was pushed
forward by the advertising industry and simultaneously by new social
movements with a desire for a greater voice in the public sphere. Much
of pirate radio was pervaded by a youth culture that represented both a
cultural challenge to an established system of power and a manifestation
of the growing global consumer society. It is similarly evident in the way
contemporary journalistic practices were influenced both by the rise of
critical expertise and by commercialization. We will also argue, in the
following section, that commercialization is not necessarily incompati-
ble with a degree of political parallelism and under certain circumstances
might even increase partisanship in the media. Despite these complex-
ities it can be said that commercialization has in general weakened the
ties between the media and the world of organized political actors that
distinguished the Democratic Corporatist and Polarized Pluralist from
the Liberal system, and has encouraged the development of a globalized
mediaculturethatsubstantiallydiminishesnationaldifferencesinmedia
systems.

LIMITS AND COUNTERTENDENCIES OF THE
HOMOGENIZATION PROCESS

There is no question that the forces of homogenization are strong, and
that considerable convergence has taken place, primarily in the direction
of the Liberal Model. It is very reasonable to assume that this trend will
continue in the future, as, for example, younger journalists socialized
to different conceptions of the media’s role replace earlier generations,
and as the consequences of commercialization of broadcasting – still
relatively new in many European countries – continue to work them-
selves out. If this trend were to continue unchanged into the future, it

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