Page 141 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge

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Global Political Communication

intimidation, harassment, and imprisonment by the police and
military.
Some express concern about concentration of ownership in the

hands of major multinational corporations with multimedia em-
pires around the globe. Well-known examples include AOL Time
Warner and the Walt Disney Corporation in the United States; News
International in Australia; Bertelsmann in Germany; Thomson in
Canada; and Fininvest in Italy (Tunstall and Palmer 1991; Sanchez-
Tabanero 1993). It is feared that media mergers may have concen-
trated excessive control in the hands of a few multinational corpo-
rations, which remain unaccountable to the public, reducing media
pluralism (Bogart 1995; Bagdikian 1997; Picard 1988; McChesney
1999).

Therefore in practice, far from strengthening the voice of marginal-
ized and disadvantaged groups, and bolstering government account-
ability to citizens, the mass media may instead serve to reinforce the
control of powerful interests and governing authorities. The long-term
dangers of these practices are that electoral democracies experience in-
effective governance and growing disillusionment with representative
institutions, hindering the process of democratization and human de-
velopment, while communication channels strengthen the control of
governing parties and established elites in nondemocratic states.

COMPARING MEDIA SYSTEMS
This study seeks to understand the role of media systems in development
by comparing many countries around the globe. As discussed elsewhere
in this volume, much existing research on political communications is
based upon studies of the United States, as well as paired cross-national
comparisons, for example between Britain and Germany. But there are
major problems in attempts to generalize from one or two countries to
map out broader relationships. As Lipset has long stressed, the United
States, in particular, is so “exceptional” in its political system that it is
atypical of many other nations (Lipset 1990; Lipset 1996). The indi-
vidualistic values and particular constitutional structures created at the
founding of the United States sets a specific cultural milieu. Particular
circumstances, particular historical legacies, and particular institutional
structures may well structure the American media system. For example,

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