Proposing a framework for comparative analysis of the relationship between the media and the political system, this book surveys media institutions in eighteen West European and North American democracies. It identifies the principal dimensions of variation in media systems and the political variables which have shaped their evolution. It then pinpoints three major models of media systems development (the Polarized Pluralist, Democratic Corporatist and Liberal models) and explains why the media play a different role in politics in each of these systems.
Had to read it for an essay but ended up reading it basically cover to cover lol. Very dense and ultimately an academic text, but interesting if you’re into media systems in Europe (or if you have to write an essay on it)?
There are three models of media, liberal, polarized pluralist or mediterranean, and democratic corporatist or central european. All of these models except maybe the liberal one have tight relationships between the political system and the media owners, the so called parallelism. The liberal model is more information oriented, but nevertheless it is owned by private magnates, so it cannot be very independent.