The Jeremiad Over Journalism

―unrepresentative and atypical,‖ as well as ―neither replicable nor comparable,‖ when not conducted
systematically. 10
The present study attempts to remedy the above-mentioned pitfalls of content analysis and historical
hermeneutic inquiry by incorporating both approaches in the same study. Additionally, the
historical and content analysis conducted here will provide an example of ―comparative historical
research,‖ which Hallin and Mancini find lacking in the field of communication where
contemporary and ethnocentric studies abound. 11
The framework for historical analysis of Americanization is proposed by the Dutch Americanist
Mel van Elteren and focuses on ―transmission,‖ ―transnationalization,‖ and ―appropriation‖ of
impulses from the United States, while the content analysis is inspired by comparative quantitative
research between the United States and Europe which sees journalistic institutions‘ relationship to
the economic and political field as key variables shaping different journalistic practices
historically. 12
The historical analysis is guided by van Elteren‘s recommendation that researchers ―immerse
themselves in the life-worlds of historical actors as best as they can through combined cultural-
historical and historical-anthropological approaches that enable them to carefully offer tentative
interpretations of people‘s attitudes, emotions and actions of relevance – ‗readings‘ of past behavior
that seems most adequate within the hermeneutic circle of this interpretative research.‖ 13
Van Elteren‘s framework for studying Americanization is illustrated in Table 1 and 2 below and
introduces the three main analytical categories along with four levels of driving forces in
10 Fiona Devine, "Qualitative Methods," in Theory and Methods in Political Science, ed. David Marsh and Gerry Stoker
(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002). Page 204-205.
11 Hallin and Mancini, Comparing Media Systems. Three Models of Media and Politics. Page 2 and 304. ―There is a
need for comparative historical research in communication. We were struck, just to take one example, at how little was
available – at least in the English-language literature and in other literatures we could read in the original – on the
history of the party press.‖Additionally, as Sørensen and Petersen note, while there has been a recent focus on
Americanization of Danish society within the last decade, very few studies before this time dealt with the cultural aspect
of Americanization. See Klaus Petersen and Nils Arne Sørensen, "Kommunister, Jan-Bøger Og Drømmekøkkener
[Communists, Jan-Books and Dream Kitchens]," Jysk Selskab for Historie, no. 1 (2007). Moreover, no studies within
the last decade has focused on Americanization of Danish journalism.
12 Mel Van Elteren, Americanism and Americanization: A Critical History of Domestic and Global Influence (Jefferson,
North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2006). Page 145-147. See also Jesper Strömbäck and Daniela
V. Dimitrova, "Political and Media Systems Matter: A Comparison of Election News Coverage in Sweden and the
United States," Press/Politics 11, no. 4 (2006). Page 132-134. As well as Daniel C. Hallin and Rodney Benson, "How
States, Markets and Globalization Shape the News: The French and US National Press, 1965-97," European Journal of
Communication 22, no. 1 (2007). Page 28-29.
13 Elteren, Americanism and Americanization: A Critical History of Domestic and Global Influence. Page 124.
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