Media Systems Theory

Abstract

This article outlines the paradigms and research traditions in the analysis of the development and organization of media systems. Considering media systems as a set of media institutions and practices that interact with and shape one another, two major strands can be distinguished: (older) normative-critical approaches, which aim at generalizing particular concepts of how media systems should function within society, and (newer) analytical approaches, which attempt to explain the emergence of and changes to media structures and institutions and their impact on media performance and audience behavior. Normative approaches are overshadowed by the political circumstances of the Cold War era, while analytical approaches to date have only a short, though promising, history. Like media systems themselves, media systems theory has evolved within and been influenced by political and cultural contexts. The starting point of much of the research was the notion that the status and structures of mass media are largely determined by the political and social orders and norms within which the media operates. In order to be able to adequately grasp these connections, media systems research developed comparative models and procedures early on, since only a comparison can show the characteristics that prevail in a given geographical context (or temporal context—though this is less often theoretically considered or empirically explored). Thus it comes as no surprise that media systems research has been on the up and up with an overall increasing interest in comparative research in the course of the dramatic political and economic changes triggered by the “third wave of democratization” and the ongoing market deregulation. Considerations on the effects that these phenomena might have on the structure and performance of media systems have led to a new stage in the development of media systems theory, in that more elaborated approaches—such as the “three models of media and politics” proposed by Daniel C. Hallin and Paolo Mancini in their book Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics (Hallin and Mancini 2004, cited under Core Texts and General Overviews)—are providing an empirical foundation as opposed to a normative foundation for comparative media system analysis. The present radical transformation in the media imposes yet unknown challenges on media systems research. Due to technological and economic changes, all kinds of boundaries are blurring: between national markets, media genres, journalistic cultures, publics, and even between users and producers. This raises the question of whether media systems research, which is generally focused on previous upheavals of media structures, has sufficient potential to provide a theoretical framework for the current changes, and whether this can also be used to understand future developments.