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THE SWEDISH MODEL BECOMES LESS SWEDISH | 81

If the political system has gone from stability to volatility, the same can be said about
the media system. A party press system dominated the print media during most of the
last century. Newspapers were affiliated to political parties, sometimes owned by
political parties, and both news pages and opinion pages were often coloured by these
close attachments. Diversity was thus maintained through different and easily
recognised political opinions in different newspapers. The highlight of the party press
system was the introduction of the press subsidy system in the 1970s, where the
second-ranking newspaper in circulation in an area received governmental support in
order to maintain competition in the regional market (Nord,2001b).

When broadcast media appeared on the scene,public service broadcasting systems were
established. In contrast to the printed media, diversity was supposed to be reached by
well-defined rules for the public service broadcast companies, aimed at guaranteeing
objective and impartial news reporting. As with the party press, public service media
could be described as channels for political information with close connections to, and
dependence on, the political system (Hadenius, 1998). However, recent years have seen
dramatic changes on the national media scene where deregulations and technological
advances have introduced more market-oriented broadcast media companies. At the
same time there have been enormous changes in the newspaper market, which has seen
a market-driven development with more owner concentration, joint ventures and take-
overs with both vertical and horizontal integration processes taking place (Hvitfelt,2002).

Another important feature of these media changes is within the political de-alignment
process. The consolidation of professional values among publishers and journalists has
enabled media companies to become much more independent of the political system.
As political loyalties are now articulated much less in public, media interest in showing
party affiliations has decreased dramatically.Thus,a party-related media system has to a
large extent been replaced by an independent and market-oriented media system. All
the main actors in the Swedish political communication system now have to adjust to
new conditions where marketing logic and highly volatile public opinion are distinctive
features.

MEDIA DEMOCRACY AND NEWS MANAGEMENT
In a party-based democracy public debate is naturally linked to the activities of the
political parties and their performances in the public sphere. Party congresses, town
hall meetings, parliamentary debates and policy platforms are central to the opinion The Swedish Model Becomes Less Swedish
formation processes. Citizens evaluate the political parties by joining party activities,
discussing with party members and reading party-produced political information or
advertisements. Of course, the media plays an important role in these opinion
processes, but in a party-based democracy the main function of the media is to be a
channel for information by reflecting upon political party positions and giving space to
different ideological views. In this model the media system is more or less attached to
the political system (Mazzoleni & Schulz,1999). 83