Impacts on Diversity in Mediterranean Media Systems: An Explorative Study of Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal

This study examines impacts on news diversity in countries of the European South (macro-level analysis), focusing on the level of punitive state intervention from 2002 to 2023. Beyond internal features of media systems (press freedom and government censorship of media), the study also assesses socio-political and economic elements such as polarization and corruption, and level of economic growth. By identifying the impact these features have on news diversity in one of the most highly debated categories of western media systems, the Mediterranean polarized/pluralists, the study also contributes to the growing research agenda on media systems in the digital age.