From Media Systems to Media Cultures

Abstract

The comparative study of media systems and their relationships with political systems has received a substantial amount of attention in recent years, and made significant strides in understanding the diversity of mass communication around the world, along with its causes. Yet, while this systemic approach is important, it offers it offers only a partial insight into diversity of global media landscapes and, more generally, into the social implications of mass communication. To gain a fuller grasp of these implications, we need to start from the premise that socially significant communication extends well beyond the traditional domains of politics, and encompasses the mediation of basic cultural ideals and narratives, as well as the structuring of everyday practices and routines. These include the perceptions of private and public life, the understanding of the nation and its position in the world, the modes of organizing daily routines and everyday spaces, the historical events remembered and celebrated on a mass scale, and much more. To investigate these dimensions, this paper develops a conceptual and analytical framework that conceives of media cultures as patterns of ideas and practices that enable mass mediated meaning formation, and that have distinct spatial and temporal characteristics. These media cultures can vary on a number of dimensions, from the extent to which they seek to serve public or private goals, the degree to which they are open to transnational exchanges, to their modes of engaging with the past, present and future. This framework can be applied to different media and cultural forms, and in diverse political and cultural contexts. By way of illustration, the paper outlines how the framework can be used for the comparative study of (analogue) television cultures.

The endeavour for political and professional freedom in Hungarian television during the 1956 October revolution

“…In this article, beyond the political aspect, the evaluation of the early years of Hungarian television takes into account contemporary cultural, economic, socio-psychological, human and international aspects. In this respect, it corresponds to the methodology applied and the conclusions drawn by some recent studies examining other Eastern European socialist televisions (Mihelj, 2014;Gumbert, 2014;Mihelj and Huxtable, 2014;Imre, 2016). Those recent studies, however, dealt with other Eastern European television systems and only a few television programmes from the mid-seventies or later periods were used as examples with regard to Hungary.…”

“…Those recent studies, however, dealt with other Eastern European television systems and only a few television programmes from the mid-seventies or later periods were used as examples with regard to Hungary. Some of the studies discuss transnational comparisons, crossing the national borders in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union (Mihelj and Huxtable, 2014) while others (Ibroscseva and Stover, 2017;Grzelewska et al, 2001) focus on presenting several aspects or periods of national television development. The cross-border studies undertook a difficult task.…”

Three W’s of in-depth journalism portraying socio-environmental conflicts in Chilean television: What (the agenda), who (the sources), and where (the locations)

“…Public television charges a fee for each hour using its media archive. So, the purposeful sample of stories analyzed in this study was obtained from a spreadsheet manually lled out in a previous research (Lagos, 2019) by consulting what Mihelj and Huxtable (2018) call "paratexts". e spreadsheet includes dates, episodes' title, authors, topics, and whether corresponds to foreign or national coverage and contains material produced by both shows between 1984 and 2015 (Informe Especial) and between 1991 and 2015 (Contacto) 2 .…”

Cuban Media During the Presidency of Raúl Castro: A Multidimensional Approach to Understanding Patterns of Change and Continuity in Media Systems

“…Scholars have addressed the processes of change in media systems, with an emphasis on the "democratic transition" of the former communist countries of Eastern Europe, and in countries with recent military dictatorships or authoritarian-and postauthoritarian-regimes of various nature in Mediterranean Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa (Downey and Mihelj 2012;Jakubowicz 2007;Mihelj and Huxtable 2018;Sparks 2005;Voltmer 2013a). Hallin and Mancini (2004) argued changes in political and economic structures generated a process of convergence of media systems toward a liberal media system.…”