Quality of Journalism and Media Freedom in Europe: The fsQCA Approach

Media freedom is often seen as the main value against which the quality of media systems is judged. While the levels of media freedom in Europe are generally higher than the world average, there are yet significant variations in how certain European countries score on media freedom indices and scales. This paper uses comparative quantitative data and applies the fsQCA method to analyze how macro-, meso-, and micro-levels of journalism as a field relate to different levels of media freedom in Europe. The results suggest that media market structure, journalistic skills, and journalists adhering to the monitorial role of journalism constitute the “core” conditions for the implementation of media freedom.