Media Use: Southern Europe

Media systems in southern Europe share three major features. First, they are characterized by extensive commercialization and a high degree of state interference. Second, media uses have been crucial in shaping media systems and their contents. Third, most have a decent but not a solid level of freedom of the press. Similar to the Mediterranean countries, the Balkan countries are usually regard as a whole. The two groups share some media use strands, especially the low circulation of newspapers and the heavy use of electronic media for news on current affairs. The use of social media is growing impressively, although the Internet is not displacing conventional media altogether. Overall is hard to determine the effects of this change (and it is also hard methodologically and theoretically to investigate the consequences).