Media Systems and Political Information Resources : An Empirical Study of Focus and Frames Across Countries and News Media Outlets

Commercialization does influence the amount of news and current affairs programs provided to citizens in a country (Aalberg, et al, 2010). Does commercialization also have a strong impact on how everyday news is reported? This paper investigate whether the focus of information and ways of framing the news vary significantly between media systems and media channels according to the level of commercialisation. Are soft, de-contextualised and insular news predominantly an American feature and something that characterize commercial news media more generally, while hard news, contextualised news and coverage of foreign affairs is greater in media systems dominated by public service regulation and strong prestige newspapers? These questions will be analysed and discussed based on a large study of news content conducted across 6 countries covering close to 45,000 news stories in 2008 and 2009