A Clash of Media Systems?

In 2006, the British company Mecom bought up the Norwegian company Orkla Media, an important player in eight European countries. The article discusses the possible effects from two perspectives, (1) Hallin and Mancini's `Three Models of Media and Politics' and (2) the old and new media order described by the Norwegian `Power and Democracy' study. From perspective (1), the takeover will put the Norwegian media system to the test, as Mecom represents the liberal and Norway the democratic corporatist model. The article examines the takeover in relation to the criteria Hallin and Mancini use to distinguish between the models, and pays particular attention to the burden of defining one's journalistic stand as social responsibility, drawing partly on lessons from the US. With regard to perspective (2), it is noted that Norway has already implemented salient features of the liberal model. Mecom, however, adds an international dimension, and its commercialism may be different from that of Norway's new media order.