Comparing Nordic media systems: North between West and East?

The objective of this article is to further examine Nordic media systems beyond the tenta- tive Democratic Corporativist Model introduced by media scholars Daniel C. Hallin and Paolo Man- cini in their important work Comparing Media Systems. Three Models of Media and Politics. Further- more, the article discusses distinct features of media and politics-relations in the Nordic countries and attempts to identify key factors constraining or promoting a possible liberalization or hybridization of the media systems in Nordic countries. The empirical data is based on a secondary analysis of avail- able media statistics in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. A comparative approach is used to analyze whether the Nordic countries actually meet the standards of the Democratic Corporativist Model or if they are drifting towards a more liberal media model. The main conclusion of this article is that the Nordic media systems are becoming more liberal due to diminished influences from gov- ernments and political parties. However, traditional Nordic media institutions remain strong and have been successful in adapting to new conditions thus creating new hybrids of the Nordic and the Lib- eral media models.