Page 61 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge

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Americanization, Globalization, and Secularization

imperatives. At the same time, deeper social forces are clearly at work,
and the changing role of the media can only be understood in the context
of a broader process of social change.
The global expansion of the market society has clearly diminished the
differences between nationally distinct systems of media and political
communication. It is hard to say how far this process of convergence
might go. It could lead to complete homogenization, to the point that
national differences, including differences between the United States and
Europe essentially vanish. It also may be that convergence will stop short
ofcompletehomogenization.Thereare,certainly,structuralandcultural
differences between the United States and Europe that may prove to be of
continued relevance. These include parliamentarism and proportional
representation in European political systems, the tradition of the welfare
state, and differences in traditions on media regulation, which mean, for
example, that many European countries still ban paid political adver-
tising in electronic media – not a small difference from the American
media environment.
Theimplicationsofthesechangesfordemocracyandthepublicsphere
are as complex as the process of change. We cannot explore them fully
here. One hint at their complexity can be illustrated by a return to the
Dutch example, in which the old regime was undermined, in Wigbold’s
view, simultaneously by the rise of critical professionalism – by an inten-
sified questioning of established authority that was part of the process of
secularization and connected to the rise of new social movements – and
by “Trossification,” that is, by a flight into the privatism of the consumer
society, that was in some sense the other face of the same process of social
change. The public sphere thus became more open in certain ways – less
bound by the limits imposed by the established political subcommu-
nities and their leaderships – and in other ways less so, as commercial
imperatives have imposed new constraints.

REFERENCES
Bagnasco, Arnaldo. 1977. TreItalie.Bologna: Il Mulino.
Bettetini, Gianfranco. 1985. Un fare italiano nella televisione. In Fondazione Giovanni
Agnelli, ed. Televisione: la provvisoria identit`a nazionale.Torino: Fondazione Giovanni
Agnelli.
Blanchard, Margaret A. 1986. Exporting the First Amendment: The Press-Government
Crusade of 1945–1952.New York: Longman.
Blumler, Jay. 1992. Television and the Public Interest.London: Sage.

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