ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the interim utility of Comparing Media System (CMS) but argues that there are aspects of its theoretical framework that present increasingly severe obstacles to a full understanding of the differences and similarities between the nature and functioning of media in different national contexts. Much of the original work is concerned with exploring the extent to which categories developed in the political science tradition are useful in developing a model of the relationship between media system and political system, and this was undoubtedly an important part of the authors' original intention. The authors identify three dimensions which allow people to use the term 'professionalism' with regard to journalism: autonomy, professional norms, and public service orientation. The two categories that are most closely derived from the functionalist model—professionalism and political parallelism—are also the most contradictory and ill-defined of the categories utilized in CMS.
