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THE NEWS MEDIA AS A POLITICAL INSTITUTION

2010; Routledge; Volume: 12; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/1461670x.2010.511958

1469-9699

Sigurd Allern, Mark Ørsten,

European Union Policy and Governance

Abstract On the basis of Scandinavian journalism research this article discusses the changing political roles of news organizations and journalists after the fall of the party press and the dissolution of broadcasting as a state-controlled monopoly. Given these institutional changes, we ask the following: what new roles, if any, are news organizations and journalists playing in the political system? What are the characteristics of these new roles, and how do news organizations use their newfound political power? We address these questions in the context of an institutional approach to the news coupled with Hallin and Mancini's analysis of media systems. Keywords: media systemsnew institutionalismpolitical journalismpolitical parallelismScandinavia Notes 1. Some differences are important to keep in mind. The United States is a large country with a federal government, presidential and Congress elections, politically dominated by two relatively loose “party alliances.” All the Scandinavian countries are small, parliamentarian democracies with multiparty systems, relatively strong trade unions and a large state sector in the economy. 2. The press subsidies in Norway have for years been under attack from different business groups—and from the Conservatives and the right wing, populist Progress Party. In the autumn of 2009 a new government-appointed committee was established with a mandate to discuss if changes in the system are needed. 3. The press subsidies are also under attack in Sweden, and the Bonnier group has for a long time organized a lobby campaign in Brussels, trying to mobilize the EU Commission to demand a downsizing of the press support to Svenska Dagbladet and a small newspaper in Malmö (competing with Sydsvenska Dagbladet, also owned by the Bonnier group). The basic argument is that the amount of support undermines market competition and favours the interests of Svenska Dagbladet's new owner, the Norwegian-based Schibsted-group. 4. A-pressen, a company that controls a chain of newspapers and—together with the Danish corporation Egmont—own the largest commercial television company, TV2.