Introduction to Western Media Systems

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It focuses on shared characteristics and variations of the media systems of the developed countries of Western Europe and U.S., and Canada. Part-1 is the meanings. West and Western Here, west generally refers to the nation-states of North America and Western Europe. All these states currently have parliamentary systems based on representative democracy and the rule of law. The nature of the political system in which they operate, fundamentally shapes the operation of media firms. By western we mean (a) type of society that is developed, industrialized, urbanized, capitalist, secular and modern. This type of society began to emerge in Western Europe in 16th century, but the term ‘western’ now generally denotes all such developed societies. The next is Media and Mass Communications. Communications media have played a major role in the development of the modern societies, in the formation of nation-states and cultural identities. The term ‘media’ came into common use when television broadcasting became commonly available in the west in 1950’s. Here are the three main connected meanings of media- 1. The term refers to the technological means of communication, the technical medium through which a message is sent or received. 2. It refers to the institutional and organisational forms through which media content is produced and distributed. 3. It states that the ‘media’ is the informational and symbolic content that is received and consumed by the readers, audiences or users. Although, media is a small word but it includes radio, television, practices of journalism and content production for print, electronic and internet. It also includes telecommunication and computing, marketing communications, public relations and aspects of corporate communications. All these may be said to constitute the ‘media’ today. It’s not easy to understand media, since everything

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