From Liberal to Polarized Liberal? Contemporary U.S. News in Hallin and Mancini’s Typology of News Systems

Abstract

The 2016 presidential election demonstrated the extent to which U.S. news has changed since its “high modernist” moment. Evidence of these shifts—fragmented and poorly monetized news markets, politicization of news content and funding, uneven professionalization, and even increasing openness to state involvement—have been documented in the literature for some years, but often framed as exceptions. This paper revisits Hallin and Mancini’s typology of news systems to suggest that as variants of Polarized Pluralist elements are entrenched in the American news system, it is drifting away from the Liberal model into a hybrid category of “Polarized Liberal.” Research and meta-journalism from the last decade are reviewed to characterize this hybrid model, which is applicable beyond the United States and might well become the focal point of convergence in the near future. Potential reasons for this transition are discussed, evoking sociopolitical and technological dynamics.