ABSTRACT
Journalism and, more generally, media structures do not grow up in a vacuum. They are born and develop within a network of interactions and negotiations with a number of other social systems and factors, most of all with economics and politics. This seems to be a simple, trite, almost stupid statement. And, nevertheless, if one looks at media and journalism theory, this statement is very often dismissed and contradicted and a single theory is elevated to the level of universal rule, putting aside the role and importance of the interacting factors, of historical, social, economic, and political context.
