Re-conceptualizing Media Systems

Comparative studies of the media have experienced a boom in recent years. This chapter reviews the history of scholarly discussions of comparing media systems. It argues that the currently dominant framework developed by Hallin and Mancini, while providing the basis for some very illuminating studies, suffers from a number of defects, both theoretical and empirical. In particular, the notion of a media system, conceived of as a body of institutions and practices across different media forms in a particular country, which displays sufficient internal consistency to make it legitimate to compare it with the body of institutions and practices in another country, is difficult to sustain in many instances and can lead to a neglect of internal contradictions that may be present. The chapter develops some aspects of an alternative approach which rests upon a much looser conception of the objects of comparison and which illuminate rather better the differences and similarities both within particular national systems and between different national instances.