RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue

1 . determines the media's place in the fielđ of social forces active in the given country , as well as the nature of their relations with those forces; 2. sets the media's goals and functions and def ines the values pursued by them , ensuring an overall consonance between the operation of mainstream , national media and the interests of the power structure; 3 . shapes the lega! and institutional arrangements adopted by a medium of mass communication in a way suited to the pursuit of those goals and functions; 4. ascribes roles to participants in communication and def ines relations among them . As can be seen , this concept is used to define what Denis McGiuail (1987) calls the "media institution" , and what Charles Wright (1986) regards as institutionalized forms of social communication and the patterns of social organization through which mass communication occurs . The model it đetermines the main dimensions of međia defi.nitions and images (cf . HcOuail, 1987) аз far as relations of media to state and society , social and cultural values , organizational and technological features , and finally кеу aspects of the social relationship of sender and receiver are concerned. It aiso determines media performance judged on the basis of such criteria as freeđom and independence , order and solidarity , diversity and access , objectivity anđ information quality and cultural values (McOuail , 1987), Radio began, of course , as a polycentric system mađe up of small, private stations . Sooner or later , however, in Europe the private stations were taken over either by the state or by public corporations . With some exceptions , 5 ) most countries centralized their radio systems and introduced broadcasting monopoly primarily because "the established political system wanted to keep the control of (the broadcast) media" (HcOuail, Siune , 1986; 3; cf . also Wedell , 1987). MONOCENTRIC SVSTEM OF UNIFORHISTIC COMMUNICATION The prevalling socio-institutional model of radio broadcastmg , as it emerged from this process , can - with regard to most European countnes , at least - be called that of a monocentric system of uniformistic communication . This system is one-way, top-down, univocal commumcation embodied unegual social relationships by formally ascribing an active role m the communication nexus solely to an institution controlled by the