The dynamics of influence on press freedom in different media systems: A comparative study

Abstract

This study focuses on contributing to the emerging internationalresearch agenda regarding press freedom, moving beyond thealready established factors that relate to political and industrialnorms as influences on press freedom. Its primary goal is toexplore the dynamics of influence on press freedom in differentmedia systems of the western world based on a quantitativeanalysis of data for 2008–2019 in 16 countries. Findings indicatethat press freedom in democratic countries is severely challengedand in certain deeply worrying cases, it is steadily declining,whereas factors that influence this decline appear to be commonin different, even contradictory, media systems. In addition, byexamining the dynamics of influence on press freedom indifferent media systems, this work attempts to partiallycontribute to the discussion on the evolution of western mediasystems as regards their relationship with press freedom.