ABSTRACT
Hallin and Mancini provide the most well-developed analytical framework so far for understanding the relationship between media and political systems. A major convergence trend they identify is declining political parallelism within Northern European states (democratic corporatist systems). Party-affiliated newspapers now barely exist among mass-circulation newspapers. However, political parallelism persists in Southern Europe, although journalistic styles have shifted somewhat towards ‘Anglo-American’ practices. There are some discernible counter-trends, such as the rise of partisan, advocacy journalism in the United States, such as politicised radio and TV talk shows (H&M 2004a: 286) representing convergence towards a more ‘European’ model in which ‘neutral’ journalism coexists with political partisanship.
