The Jeremiad Over Journalism

experience as a visiting scholar in Europe and backs it up with four or five other individual account
in the footnotes, but rarely is a survey or a broader study used to enhance the assertion of a
representative argument. 67
Holm, 1999
In her study ―American Influence on Danish TV Journalism,‖ Nancy Graham Holm argues that
endogeneous forces as much as exogeneous forces have shaped the development of Danish
television from 1990 to 1999 and that while ―Danish TV journalism has changed fundamentally in
the last ten years it is not a direct result of American influence.‖ 68
Utilizing questionnaires and qualitative interviews with Danish journalists, Holm nevertheless
admits that ―it is difficult to measure America‘s influence on Danish TV journalism,‖ and does not
attempt to define or operationalize Americanization any further. Despite Holm‘s description of the
difficulties in measuring American influence, the author finds that changes have been taking place
with increased speed after 1988 when the Danish Broadcasting Service no longer was the sole actor
on the Danish TV market. Thereby, Holm implicitly argues the importance of commercialization
and deregulation in transforming the Danish media market.
According to Holm, the changes ascribed to Danish TV journalism are not exclusively the result of
American influence, but these developments are ―a response to competition, changes in technology
and globalization. (…) It is incorrect, therefore, to say that America is responsible.‖ 69 Despite her
argument that media markets are mostly shaped by endogeneous forces, Holm‘s text does not seem
to reflect over differences within the countries she describes. On the contrary, Americans ―thrive on
innovation,‖ Danes ―do not like change,‖ some Danes prefer a growing trend towards populism,
while Danish intellectuals ―have a tendency to prefer the elitist‖ public service model for television.
Holm sees the Danish adherence to public service as an important counterforce of American
influence especially combined with Danish aversion to change.
―[I]n spite of market forces, techonology and globalization, there has been strong resistance to
outside influence. In spite of America‘s enormous power to influence, there is one
67 Ibid. Page 145-151.
68 Nancy Graham Holm, "American Influence on Danish TV Journalism," Update (1999),
http://www.update.dk/cfje/VidBase.nsf/ID/VB00140562. Article accessed July 11, 2008. Page 12.
69 Ibid. Holm does, however, point out that ―the electronic teleprompter, used in American [sic] since the 70s was
introduced to Danish TV news only in the 1990s.
23