Media system: scope - structure - definition

Wiesław Sonczyk

English version of the article

The term "media system", although frequently used in subject literature, does not posses a normative or a clear-cut, unambiguous definition so far. The author attempts to label this term, based on a critical analysis of its definitions taken from media studies' dictionaries. He treats the media system as an internally complex, autonomous entity being part of a greater whole, such as a country, also treated as a system. The media system is comprised of institutional structures and final products which recipients use directly and frequently as they are addressed to them (newspapers, journals, radio and TV programmes) as well as entities (such as press agencies, distributors) with which people are less familiar with but which, nevertheless, are crucial to the functioning of the media system.

KEYWORDS

press, media, mass media, system, Polish media system