On October 26, 2023, the EUMEPLAT book “The Media Systems in Europe. Continuities and Discontinuities”, was presented at IULM University in Rome.

The event was led by the two editors of the book: Stylianos Papathanassopoulos, Professor in Media Organisation and Policy at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and Andrea Miconi, Professor of Media Sociology at IULM University and EUMEPLAT principal investigator.

Among the speakers there were Paolo Mancini, Professor of Media Sociology at the University of Perugia and member of the EUMEPLAT Scientific Board, and Christian Ruggiero, Professor of Sociology of Cultural and Communicative Processes at Sapienza University of Rome.

Prof. Papathanassopoulos introduced the panel, presenting the main topics of this open-access book, which traces the evolution of the European media landscape in the last 30 years, from 1990 to 2020. It also discusses the media systems of the EU-member states through a regional perspective, identifying similarities and differences.

During his in-depth book’s presentation, Prof. Papathanassopoulos also came up with some suggestions that the EU should take into consideration regarding the platformization of the national and the EU media systems.

Moving to other academic perspectives in media systems, Prof. Mancini stated that the digitalization era has completely revolutionized the idea of systems and of models as it was in 1996 and then in 2004. He also stressed the fact that platforms do not have a national character and, therefore, systems are less and less nationally based.

On this particular aspect, Prof. Miconi suggested then to talk about patterns rather than systems.

“We can have global, national and regional media patterns. What definitely does not exist is a European media pattern”

The different approach proposed by Andrea Miconi was corroborated by Prof. Ruggiero who highlighted the need for scholars to build something which can be defined as a model or a pattern, and helps reaching a clearer understanding of how different countries work together in a common way.

The event concluded by sharing thoughts, new ideas and different perspectives on the topic. It resulted in a very rich and fruitful discussion among the experts, giving the audience valuable insights.