The differentiation of mass media in Sweden

Résumé du document

According to Hallin and Mancini (2005), an important issue about the comparing media systems is the differentiation or not of mass media. Differentiation is defined by Parsons (1971) as 'the division of a unit or structure of a social system into two or more units or structures that differ in their characteristics and functional significance for the system'. He explained that 'social functions initially fused are separated' in a process of change. The convergence of media systems towards the liberal model can be studied through the level of differentiation of each media system. Indeed, in the 'liberal' countries, media systems have strong ties with economy and less with the political field; in the 'polarized pluralis' countries, media are strongly connected with politics; and in the 'democratic corporatist' countries, to which Sweden belongs, media have strong ties with both economic and political fields, but experienced a shift away from politics in the last few years and so formed a convergence towards the liberal model.

Extraits

[...] The development of democracy puts freedom of the media as a fundamental principle. Two constitutional laws protect the freedom of media (the Freedom of the Press Act, 1766; the Fundamental Law on Freedom of Expression, 1991). Moreover, journalists develop a very efficient system of self-regulation to avoid state intervention in the media field especially concerning media ethics. Journalism became a profession, which regulates itself and so became autonomous from the State. However, the Swedish state still had a monopoly over the TV and Radio broadcastings until the late 1980s, when deregulation occurred and commercial channels in TV and Radio were introduced. [...]

[...] and Paolo Mancini (2005), Comparing Media Systems. Three models of media and politics. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. Weibull, Lennart and Anna Maria Jönsson (2007), Swedish Media Landscape, pp1-15 In George Terzis (Ed.) European Media Systems. London: Intelect Books. [...]

[...] I choose to focus on the differentiation of mass media in Sweden from three main fields: differentiation from political parties (and thus from social classes), from the State and from the Market. First of all, the differentiation from political parties is called “secularization” by Hallin and Mancini. This means a “decline of a political and social order based political and ideological “faiths”. In Sweden, the traditional core of the mass media system was based on a very strong political press. The connection concerned ownership as readership and content. [...]

[...] This trend is shared in all European countries, where the media systems get closer to the liberal model due to processes explained above and to other processes such as “Americanization” of societies (Hallin and Mancini, 2005) or new pressures of globalization. Bibliography Hadenius, Stig and Lennart Weibull (1999), The Swedish Newspaper System in the late 1990s. Tradition and Transition pp.129-152 in Nordicom review. Special issue on : Reflections on Public Service Broadcasting and The Rise of the Modern Press in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, vol 20, nr 1/1999. Hallin, Daniel C. [...]

[...] To conclude with, an important point for the choice of a newspaper today has more to do with the familial tradition, the content of the newspaper (e.g. local news) and the distribution market than with political consideration (Hadenius and Weibull, 1999). The differentiation of mass media from the State occurred through processes such as professionalization and development of self-regulation within the Swedish media landscape. Initially, the Swedish state had a role of control over the media with especially a strong censorship over the press. [...]