results
Pan-European trends and media system clusters regarding different conditions for media freedom and plurality (Czepek/Hellwig/Nowak 2009)
Economic developments on the one hand challenge and
technological developments on the other hand further plurality,
integrity, and editorial freedom. The PLUS research project will
explore the role of media in the formation, consolidation and working
of democracies in Europe. A main question is how the different
considerations relate to each other and how contradictions can be
solved (e.g. freedom of expression vs. privacy, data protection vs.
commercial interests, respect for different cultures and personal
rights, provisions for state security).
The PLUS project group has already gathered and systematized such
structural factors on which the future research will build upon. We
have developed a scheme of factors which can be defined as determinants
of media systems. A brief overview of the factors is given in the table
above. Rather than attempting to generalize models, we try to identify
specific determinants and compare the different variations of factors
in the respective states. The purpose is not merely to describe media
systems but to focus on such variables that potentially influence media
autonomy and pluralism.
In comparing the findings, we have identified some structural
constraints which are a concern almost everywhere in Europe, such as
the impact of EU-deregulation, concentration of media ownership,
declining resources for journalistic work etc. (see left column of the table). Others can
be found in certain groups of countries, like the
presence of strong legal regulation of media content which is present
in some countries, but not in others, or the specific constraints of
small media markets in small countries (see right column of the table).
It is interesting to note that the clusters vary with regard to
different realms: Some countries might be grouped according to their
legal commonalities, but might be grouped differently with regard to
their economic structure. While media systems in Europe are the rather
heterogeneous results of different legal, economic, political,
historical, cultural and social conditions, common concerns across
Europe emerge as well as some clusters with similar problems regarding
the different factors. The listed states are not comprehensive but are
to be considered examples.
See the table