Media systems of the European Union:
A qualitative analysis of four member states and their situation of the press
Bachelor Thesis by Maurice Alexander Stegen Student no: s1345133
University of Twente
Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
2016
1st Supervisor: Dr. Ringo Ossewaarde 2nd Supervisor: Dr. Claudio Matera
Abstract
This bachelor thesis aims at getting a glimpse of the compromising of press freedom of media systems in place within the European Union. Furthermore, its focus lies on identifying and conceptualizing the key dynamics of those media systems of four European member states. As a basis for this a number of theoretical and scientific research in this field has been useful, such as previous classifications on media systems by Hallin & Mancini et caetera. This has been done with a qualitative coding scheme. Finally, one will elaborate on possible causes and consequences of those differences in media systems within the selected European member states.
Acknowledgements
I ‘d like to thank my family and friends for always supporting me. Furthermore, I would like to thank Ringo Ossewaarde and Claudio Matera for the great conversations and advices on this thesis and far beyond. For that I will be forever grateful.
M. A. Stegen
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
1. Background……….………6
2. Research question……….……..7
3. Approach………..……...7
II. Theoretical Framework 1. Introduction……….…….9
2. The issue of a democracy in crisis………..………....12
3. The issue of media serving democracy ……….……….……..…13
4. The issue of the media and the rise of neopopulism………..………...14
5. Conclusion……….….…..14
III. Research Methodology 1. Introduction……….………16
2. Case selection……….…..16
3. Method of data collection………17
4. Method of data analysis……….…..…...18
5. Conclusion……….………….20
IV. Data & Analysis 1. Descriptive report……….22
2. Discussion of the results……….……..28
V. Conclusion……….………..….32
1. Answering of the research question………...32
2. Reflection………..………...32
3. Implications for the EU………..33
4. Final remarks………..35
VI. List of References………...36
VII. Appendix………...39
I. Introduction
In the following chapter, the reader will be made familiar with the issue and subject matter of this bachelor thesis as well as its main research question. Thus, the research question which is central to this thesis is: To what extent is there a compromising of press freedom of European Union media systems in the 21st century?
This question will be dealt with an indepth analysis
of newspaper articles published on the situation of the press in four different EU member states within the last five years. In addition, media systems and thereby also the freedom and the plurality of the press are being shaped by multiple factors which will be elaborated on further within the theoretical framework later onwards. Moreover, this chapter strives to grant the reader insight on the concepts of press freedom and media systems in the European Union in the background section. This will be followed by a closer examination of the research question in regard to the briefly introduced concepts and an outline of the approach as a conclusive point of this section.
1. Background
Press freedom is generally defined as an absence from the state in media activities and is a basic right most European citizens take for granted. Although freedom of speech and freedom of expression are, at least within the legal framework, ensured within all European member states and one of the fundamental values laid down in the Treaty of the European Union, Article 2.
(European Parliament, 2015), it is however currently under the threat of being undermined. A media system can be described, in general, as a classification of the environment of the media.
According to the chapter “Comparing Media Systems: The European Dimension” written by Thomass & Kleinsteuber (Trappel et al., 2011, 25) media systems are embedded in their social environment which is also culturally and nationally shaped, therefore they may be best considered in the scope of their territorial borders. In addition, media systems are being shaped by technological innovation, the industry and the economy in general. Lastly, the European media laws as well as the politics of the Union itself and the member states do have an impact on the media system in place. Although, as mentioned beforehand, there is common European law in place which aims to preserve the freedom of the press there are indeed (according to multiple
sources in academic research) breaches and differences in regard to the level of press freedom and its plurality and thereby to the types of media systems currently in place. Recent events in countries such as Hungary and Poland undermining press pluralism and targeting independent journalistic reporting as well as situations of assaults in Spain, Italy and Bulgaria as well as Romania and Greece (to name a few) emphasise this argument. One would expect that under the common European law, in regard to the freedom of the press and the freedom of expression, that this would be practiced equally in every European member state. Sadly, this is not the case;
there are multiple media systems in place within the European Union which range from a liberal to a medium to regulated type of media system (Blum, 2005). Reasons why media systems are different from one another are part of the current academic debate.
Often attention is drawn to the compromising of press freedom and plurality abroad. However, little attention has been drawn to focus on the states within the European Union, this is what the research of this thesis will focus on in a smaller scale. Previous research has delivered that press freedom in Europe is currently under terrorist attack as recent events have shown such as the cartoon crisis of 2005 as well as the recent attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in Paris in 2015. Moreover, there is also a compromising of press freedom and of the freedom of expression taking place within the European Union. The idea is to partly link it to the recent rise of neopopulism as well as neofascism (both unsurprisingly linked to Euroscepticism) and its rise in popularity is also partly linked to the terrorist attacks. Ironically, these parties which have now established themselves to a certain extent throughout Europe in almost every member state whether known as the French Front National, the Italian Forza Nuova, the German AfD, the Hungarian Fidesz, or the Polish PiS are a threat to press freedom as well, undermining the plurality of the press. Indeed, it might as well be as Sylvia Walby argues that democracy is currently in a crisis. Therefore one will need to have a look at the current evolvement of press freedom of the four selected states and it's different definitions as well as recent cases and events, the media itself and of course the media systems which should then establish themselves in this respect. The different interpretations of press freedom need to be addressed as well as the issue of the media itself. For example, whether it is merely a product to be marketed (e.g. the tabloid press) or is it serving the people in order to monitor political events and serve as a fourth pillar of democracy. It is indeed a clash of the liberal democratic values versus the ideas of neototalitarianism and their respective influences on press freedom and thereby media systems. This certain phenomena can be observed in almost all member states of the Union, namely that there is a new tendency towards totalitarianism which means to get control of the
media. As almost naturally, all totalitarian regimes themselves aim for the media as a useful weapon of propaganda and then again, a pluralistic press is a feared instrument against autocratic regimes or parties.
2. Research question
The main idea of this research paper is to find out which types of media systems can be defined and in which ways they affect press freedom and plurality of the media in the scope of the European Union. Whether the type of media system of a member state can be categorized as either a Liberal, Medium and Regulated. A number of dimensions play into this aspect, which will be presented further on. Therefore, the main qualitative research question of this bachelor thesis which is descriptive in nature is the following;
“To what extent is there a compromising of press freedom of European Union media systems in the 21st century?”
The aim of this research question is to give an understanding of the multiple media systems and their effect which are in place in Europe and furthermore link them to four member states.
Namely the EU member states Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, Poland. Its main purpose is to gain a new understanding on the compromising of press freedom within European media systems.
Since it is a descriptive research question the focus will be on the how and why (therefore “to what extent” was posed). It is therefore of essence, in order to answer the research question, to identify and describe the characteristics of press freedom as well as media systems as detailed as possible. It is evident, judging from the academic literature, that there are indeed differences present which exert themselves in a different manner on the type of compromising of press freedom and plurality of the national media. Furthermore, it seeks to conceptualize and identify the dynamics that shape media systems. It is urgent to know the extent of a compromising of press freedom in the last years as it is a subject which has been largely neglected in the scope of the European Union. In answering this question one should be able to understand the differences and gain new insights between media systems currently in place in the European Union as well as their influences and possible consequences. Furthermore, the examining of this research question aims to affiliate to the previous academic debate, by bringing up and discussing concepts such as press freedom, media systems, the (decline of) democracy and the rise of neopopulism. Although, and this shall be the innovative aspect of this thesis, with a new
perspective and diverse discussion of previous perspectives, by linking those concepts to one another together with the latest qualitative data available (in the course of the last five years).
This thesis therefore seeks to find out to what extent there still is an undermining of press plurality and the freedom of the media within EU member states, where little attention has been paid from a European perspective to why and especially how this has occurred during the last years.
3. Approach
In order to find an answer to this research question, various aspects need to be examined.
Furthermore, an appropriate methodological approach is of essence, to find out which dimensions there are that explain differences in media systems in the European Union and that ultimately shape press freedom. A qualitative approach using the case study as a research design in order to answer the research question because we want a closer insight to the actual extent of it being compromised. The quantitative data provided about media systems does not differentiate about its type. As thereby a quantitative approach would not lead to valid conclusions regarding the implementation of media systems, a qualitative approach was chosen focussing on four cases, namely Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, Poland. Therefore, a comparative case study with a thorough content analysis was chosen as an approach in order to apply the research design. This research question begs for a qualitative content analysis because it is unobtrusive, it is therefore not collected directly from people. This is important in order to deal with this analysis accordingly. It can be regarded as a study of recorded human communication in form of a conceptual analysis. The focus lies on the media systems in the European Union. The kind of data which will be used are newspaper articles. Ten articles per member state were examined, therefore a total of 40 articles were qualitatively coded according to the dimensions first set out by Blum (2005). In order to strengthen the internal validity as well as the reliability is 10 per selected member state. The time frame for this research is limited to 5 years (thus from 20112016) as media systems are prone to constant change. As three of the four countries are young Eastern European democracies, Italy was chosen as well. The benefits of developing a coding scheme in a qualitative content analysis in this case are first and foremost that it holds the potential of being more objective. There is access to a large amount of data available which is also diverse. Lastly, there has to be no worry about a response rate or such thing. As mentioned previously, the focus will lie on four member states of the European Union namely; Bulgaria,
Hungary, Italy and Poland. These four cases are particularly interesting and worth examining due to the fact that they proved to have several breaches in regard to press freedom and the plurality of the media. Of course, one would have included more member states, in order to increase the argument’s validity. However an analysis of more than four countries would result in the thesis becoming too broad and one has to accept that it has its limits in those ways. Thus it can be seen as a starting point for further academic research in this area. For each member state 10 newspaper articles will be selected and ultimately coded according to the characteristics (of the dimensions) laid out in the coding scheme. Afterwards, during the analysis, of these results one would clearly be able to attribute them to one of the three models of the media systems; namely the Liberal Model, the Medium Model as well as the Regulated Model. Only then, reasons for differentiations of member states’ media systems may seem evident. The dynamics of the media systems are then to be linked with the previously mentioned theoretical part in order to come to certain conclusions if patterns seem to reveal themselves and thereby give possible answers in regard to the research question.
II. Theoretical Framework
The following chapter aims at making the reader familiar with the concepts of media systems and their effect on press freedom and plurality, as well as the dynamics that influence them.
Multiple academic works and theories were taken into account, in order to perceive the complexity of this subject in a multifaceted manner and to provide conceptual answers to the research question in intellectual forms.
1. Introduction
There have been a number of scientific articles and books regarding this topic especially on how to define media systems such as “Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics” written by Daniel C. Hallin and Paolo Mancini and the more recent comparative case studies focussing on the EU member states, namely “Press Freedom and Pluralism in Europe:
Concepts and Conditions” written by Andrea Czepek, Melanie Hellwig and Eva Novak. In addition, Blum (2005) has presented a good way in order to categorize nations into media systems and their effects and dynamics. However, this has been more than ten years ago and much has changed since then and there is only a scarce number of scientific research on the current situation of this matter available which is one of the main motives behind this bachelor thesis. The book “Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics” written by Daniel C. Hallin and Paolo Mancini published for the Cambridge University Press in 2004 classifies media systems in Western democracies into three different normative models, namely the “Liberal”, the “Polarized Pluralist” and the “Corporatist democratic”. Hallin and Mancini are using a combination of empirical observations of several case studies and theories of political and media studies. The models are however, quite outdated and biased to a certain extent due to the fact that they pay little if not at all, attention to the young democracies (such as, for example, the former USSR countries in Europe). Later research showed, that these new democracies can be assigned to the Polarized Pluralist model. Yet they happen to identify the dimensions which are crucial in order to find out which type of media system actually promotes press freedom which is of importance in order to answer the main research question. The four dimensions presented by Hallin & Mancini (2004, p.189) which alter the three respective models are;
Newspaper Industry, Political Parallelism, Professionalization and the Role of the State in the Media System.
In addition, Hallin & Mancini put forward the so called theory of convergence, mainly citing European integration for this reason, in a political sense as well as in a judicial sense is taking place over the last years. This can also be linked to the decline of traditional mass parties throughout Europe, according to Hallin & Mancini, as well as the commercialisation of the media in general. “Press Freedom and Pluralism in Europe: Concepts and Conditions” written by Andrea Czepek, Melanie Hellwig and Eva Novak for the European Communication Research and Education Association in 2009, includes several comparative case studies from European Union member states in Central and Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and Romania), from Western Europe (Austria, France, Germany and Great Britain), Northern Europe (Finland) as well as Southern Europe (Italy and Spain). According to Czepek, Hellwig &
Novak: “Press freedom is usually considered a basic element of democratic societies, which should enable citizens to take part in the democratic process and to form an opinion on the basis of being informed about political, social and cultural events and developments. This is only possible if the media offer a pluralistic choice of topics, views and voices, and access is universally granted.” (2009, p. 11) The research conducted can be defined as a crosssectional study as the analysis of the case studies was recorded at one single point in time, in addition it is a analysis of direct observations. By comparing the different European cases, Czepek, Hellwig &
Novak (2009, p. 13) come to the conclusion that the freedom of the press in Europe is currently in breach in several member states. There are multiple reasons presented; such as a low circulation of newspapers, an elite orientated press, a weak professionalization of the press and strong state intervention (e.g. periods of censorship). This accounts especially for the countries classified as Central and Eastern Europe as well as Southern Europe.
According to Czepek, Hellwig & Novak (2009, p. 13), there is an unbalanced relationship in regard to the media ownership in the respective countries, namely Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy and Poland. This means that the public television for example, is being controlled or strongly influenced by the government in accordance with commercial broadcasting. In addition, according to Czepek, Hellwig & Novak (2009, p. 13), in these particular countries there are declining resources for journalistic work, in the form of transnational media investments as well as fragmented media markets. These aforementioned reasons or say deficits, make a closer look at the four countries, particularly interesting, as they seem as prime European examples to study the compromising of press freedom and its plurality has shown, judging from the rankings
