Resumo

VACA-BAQUEIRO, Maira Teresa. Political regimes and the media. Towards a reconsideration of the dichotomy between the authoritarian and liberal models. Foro int [online]. 2018, vol.58, n.3, pp.537-580. ISSN 0185-013X.  https://doi.org/10.24201/fi.58i3.2462.

The links between distinctive political regimes and media systems are undeniable. As Siebert, Peterson and Schramm wrote 60 years ago (Four theories of the press, Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1956, p. 1), “the press always takes on the form and coloration of the social and political structures within which it operates”. Today’s world and politics are completely different from the bipolar era that inspired Four theories of the press. And yet, media systems studies keep holding to the book’s main premises. By debating about its long lasting normative influence, this paper searches for clarification about current discrepancies between democracies and media’s distinctive forms and functioning. In so doing, it proposes an alternative analytical framework on the study of the relationships between the state and the media: the political-media complex.

Palavras-chave : politics-media relationship; political-media complex; media systems; political communication; institutionalism.