Media as a Mechanism of Institutional Change and Reinforcement
论证大众媒体是制度演化的机制，识别了媒体对制度的三种效应：渐进效应、标点效应和强化效应，并用波兰和俄罗斯共产主义崩溃的案例说明媒体既改变又强化现有制度的悖论。
SUMMARY We argue that mass media is a mechanism of institutional evolution and identify three important effects media has on institutions. The ‘gradual effect’ involves media contributing to marginal changes in existing institutions. The ‘punctuation effect’ involves media catalyzing rapid institutional overhaul. The ‘reinforcement effect’ involves media contributing to the durability and sustainability of punctuated institutional equilibria. Our analysis identifies a paradoxical relationship between mass media and institutions wherein media both changes and reinforces existing institutions. This finding resolves a tension in the institutional literature that defines institutions by their durability but recognizes we observe (sometimes rapid and radical) institutional change. Case studies from the collapse of communism in Poland and Russia illustrate our argument.