Page 51 - Comparing Media Systems THREE MODELS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS

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Comparing Media Systems

political pressures from the government, and in a pluralist political sys-
tem all must have mechanisms for responding to the demands of various
social and political groups. The particular ways in which these models
are combined, however, do differ significantly between systems.
It should also be noted that distinguishing among these models re-
quires looking beyond formal structures to the norms and practices
that govern their actual operation as institutions. The BBC is a good
example of this. The director general of the BBC is appointed by the
prime minister. In its formal structure the BBC is not distinguishable
from state-controlled broadcasting. Its distinctiveness, as we shall see, is
rooted in the informal norms expectations that govern the selection of
the director general, his or her relation to the government and oppo-
sition, and the role of journalists and other broadcasting professionals
within the organization.
As noted, similar differences can be found in the governance of the
regulatory authorities that oversee privately owned broadcasting. In par-
ticularadistinctioncanbemadebetweenmoreparty-politicizedauthor-
ities, in which the role of political parties is central, and those organized
as independent public agencies (similar to a central bank) largely under
the control of legal and technical experts.

PROFESSIONALIZATION
Theconceptsof “professionalism” and “professionalization”– like many
others in social science – have always been subject to sharp debate. Their
boundaries are ambiguous and their core definitions have been sub-
ject to repeated reinterpretation. The ideal type of professionalization
that has anchored most of the debate is based on the history of the
classic “liberal” professions, above all medicine and law. Journalism de-
parts substantially from that ideal type. One of the central criteria of
this model is that the practice of a profession is “based on systematic
knowledge or doctrine acquired only through long prescribed train-
ing” (Wilensky 1964: 138). Journalism has no such systematic body
of knowledge or doctrine. Formal “professional” training has become
increasingly common, and does often play an important role in defin-
ing journalism as an occupation and social institution. But it is clearly
not essential to the practice of journalism, and there is not a strong
correlation between professionalism as we define it here and formal
training. In the United States, journalism degrees are actually less com-
mon at the most prestigious news organizations – whose journalists in

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