The Media Welfare State

Extract

[...] According to Digital News Report 2021, the level of trust in overall news reaches only 20% in France whereas the level of trust in the same category reaches 57% in Norway. At this point, it is possible to argue that the low rate of France may be lowered by the low-trust rate of social media. However, even by changing of category, the level of trust remains particularly low: 64% of survey respondents trust regional/local newspapers in France, whereas 80% of the respondents trust regional/local newspapers in Norway, so that is 20 points of difference. [...]

[...] Finally, according to the conception of Syvertsen and al., a Media Welfare State should implement policy solutions that are durable, consensual, and involve consultation between all main stakeholders. In this case, the development of the internet among the Nordic countries is relevant to illustrate how cooperation and consensual policies are elaborated. Indeed, Trine Syvertsen and colleagues argue that "private and public institutions should not be seen as the opposite, but rather as complementary". Their example of this "complementary" can be found in the relationship between the state and the main internet companies, during the internet implementation. [...]

[...] This trend highlights once again that France and Nordic countries have a different media system, and more particularly a different media use. In conclusion, we have seen that the media characteristics between France and the Nordic countries are completely different. These differences may be explained by the fact that France and Nordic countries cannot be classified in the same ideal type. Indeed, if Nordic countries can be classified as a democratic corporatist system (in the sense of Hallin and Mancini), France would be classified as liberal media system, meaning a media system characterized by a strong commercial press, a strong journalism professionalism, and above all, a distant tie between media and political actors. [...]

[...] The purpose of this part is to see if the French case can be analyzed through the focal length of the Media Welfare State concept, or through another ideal type. To begin with the quality of press freedom, it is clear that the French media systems and the Nordic one is completely different on this point. Indeed, according to the World Press Freedom 2022, France is ranked 26 out of 180 countries whereas Nordic states are part of the top countries. [...]

[...] Indeed, the Media Welfare State concept concerns much more sectors than its appearance date, to the point where it mays be possible to talk about an "enrichment" of the concept. Indeed, as an example of this "enrichment", we can cite the study of Ahva and colleagues, welfare state of mind" to illustrate this trend. In their article, the authors "enriched" the concept of the Media Welfare State by highlighting how the characteristics of the concept can be found through mentalities and professional identities of the Nordic journalist. [...]