Comparing media systems in the digital age: A longitudinal research based on fuzzy set ideal type analysis

Although research on media systems has empirically examined the three media system models proposed in Hallin and Mancini’s landmark book Comparing Media Systems, longitudinal comparisons and ideal-type-oriented studies remain rare. These gaps limit scholars’ ability to observe how media systems evolve, particularly in the digital age, and to assess countries’ model membership and degrees of alignment. To fill these gaps, this study applied fuzzy set ideal type analysis to conduct a longitudinal comparison of the 18 countries included in Comparing Media Systems from 2010 to 2023. The findings reveal distinct variants of the classical models in the digital era, trace changes in countries’ ideal-type membership and degrees of alignment over time, and identify a representative case for each model.