Page 314 - Comparing Media Systems THREE MODELS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS

P1: GCV
0521835356c09.xml Hallin 0 521 83535 6 January 20, 2004 13:49

NINE

Conclusion

At the beginning of this book we raised the question of whether stable
connections could be identified between media systems and political
systems. We believe we have shown that indeed, such connections can
be identified. We have proposed a set of four principal dimensions for
comparing media systems: the structure of media markets, including,
particularly, the degree of development of the mass circulation press; the
degree and form of political parallelism; the development of journalistic
professionalism; and the degree and form of state intervention in the
media system. And we have argued that there are important connections
between the patterns of development of media systems, based on these
dimensions, and certain key characteristics of the political system: the
role of the state in society; the majoritarian or consensus character of
the political system; the pattern of interest group organization, includ-
ing the distinction between more fragmented liberal and more corpo-
ratistsystems;thedistinctionbetweenmoderateandpolarizedpluralism;
and the development of rational-legal authority in contrast to clientelist
forms of social organization. A set of hypotheses about the connections
between these variables is presented in Chapter 3 and we need not repeat
them in detail here.
At times, political system characteristics are manifested more or less
directly in media structures, as for example majoritarian or consen-
sus patterns of government are reflected in the organization of public
broadcasting institutions. Usually, however, the connections between
media system and political system variables cannot be interpreted as a
mechanistic,one-to-onecorrespondence.Elementsofpoliticalstructure
interact, for one thing, with other kinds of factors, including technolog-
ical and economic factors, some general to the society as a whole –
characteristics of industrial structure and the culture of consumption,

296