Instrumentalization of the media vs. political parallelism

I examine the possible differences between the concept of media instrumentalization and political parallelism. In the first part of this paper, I aim to reconstruct the history of the concept of political parallelism that derives from Seymour-Ure's concept of party parallelism. I will then discuss why and how party parallelism has transformed into political parallelism by following the transformation of mass political parties. Different dimensions of political parallelism are illustrated, including how it is linked to specific structures of the public sphere and to the idea of external pluralism. A similar discussion focuses on media instrumentalization. In the last part, I attempt to highlight different social and political conditions that motivate instrumentalization and political parallelism.