The Theory of International Media Diffusion: Political Socialization and International Media in Transitional Democracies

Abstract

Despite the long-standing normative assumption that, for individuals in transitional states, exposure to Western media cultivates stronger attachments to Western political and economic values, the evidence presented here suggests otherwise. Using mass public survey data from the mid-1990s in five Central and Eastern European countries, this article demonstrates a general lack of support for international media's positive contributions to individuals' democratic attitudes and preferences for market economies. This finding is particularly unexpected because the countries under investigation represent ideal cases based on their proximity to Western democracies and international (Western) media sources' capacities for extensive transnational media penetration into the region. Yet this failure to find persuasive evidence of the influence of international media diffusion on the development of Western political values sharpens our understanding of the process of political socialization in democratizing countries by eliminating an assumed source and is thus relevant to students of democratization, international development, and mass media.

Transgovernmental Networks as an Apprenticeship in Democracy? Socialization into Democratic Governance through Cross-national Activities

“…The view that Western broadcasting nurtures pro‐democratic attitudes and undermines public support for authoritarian regimes is widely shared (Norris ; Levitsky and Way ; Kern and Hainmueller ). Yet, “our understanding of mass media's contribution to the process of learning new attitudes during democratic transition [let alone in times of stable authoritarianism] has gone largely unexamined” (Loveless :110). Exposure to foreign media is expected to familiarize state officials with democratic governance by confronting them with media content that delineates administrative practices in established democracies, exemplifies the involvement of the public in these processes, and reports on infringements against democratic governance.…”

Media, Instability, and Democracy: Examining the Granger-Causal Relationships of 122 Countries From 1946 to 2003

“…Several examples of these technological democratic fingerprints from an American perspective include print accounts of the Lincoln‐Douglas debates (Postman, 1985), the fireside radio chats of Franklin Roosevelt (Ryfe, 1999), the televised Kennedy‐Nixon debates (Bimber & Davis, 2003; Grabe & Bucy, 2008), and media coverage of the civil rights movement (Santoro, 2008). In many countries, however, traditional media have become consumer commodities in a fragmented, international marketplace with content that has relatively little to do with civil society or national communities (Demers, 1999), which diminishes the likelihood that media diffusion might contribute to the augmentation of democracy (Loveless, 2009).…”

Media and its Influence on Democracy: A Case Study of Punjab

“…According to Loveless (2009) Democracy circulate through media comprises on idea that cultural appearance must be put in the transmission data. Now in this technique of broadcasting, communal values and normative political affairs are communicated from one nation to the targeted nation thus using this technique the targeted nation people powerfully attach to these values.…”