Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics

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Cambridge University Press, Apr 12, 2004 - Political Science - 342 pages
Building on a survey of media institutions in eighteen West European and North American democracies, Hallin and Mancini identify the principal dimensions of variation in media systems and the political variables which have shaped their evolution. They go on to identify three major models of media system development (the Polarized Pluralist, Democratic Corporatist and Liberal models) to explain why the media have played a different role in politics in each of these systems, and to explore the forces of change that are currently transforming them. It provides a key theoretical statement about the relation between media and political systems, a key statement about the methodology of comparative analysis in political communication and a clear overview of the variety of media institutions that have developed in the West, understood within their political and historical context.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
Comparing Media Systems
21
The Political Context of Media Systems
46
Media and Political Systems and the Question of Differentiation
66
The Mediterranean or Polarized Pluralist Model
89
The NorthCentral European or Democratic Corporatist Model
143
The North Atlantic or Liberal Model
198
The Forces and Limits of Homogenization
251
Conclusion
296
Bibliography
307
Index
329
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