Petros Iosifidis - Global Media and Communication Policy

Global Media and Communication Policy

Also by Petros Iosifidis

EUROPEAN TELEVISION INDUSTRIES (with J. Steemers and M. Wheeler)

PUBLIC TELEVISION IN THE DIGITAL ERA: Technological Challenges and New Strategies for Europe

REINVENTING PUBLIC SERVICE COMMUNICATION: European Broadcasters and Beyond (edited)

Petros Iosifidis

Petros Iosifidis 2011
Guest foreword Cees J. Hamelink 2011

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First published 2011 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN

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ISBN: 9780230218796 hardback

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Iosifidis, Petros.

Global media and communication policy / Petros Iosifidis.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 9780230218796 (hardback)
1. Mass media policy. 2. Communication policy. 3. Globalization.
I. Title.

P95.8.167 2011
302.23dc23

2011021103

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11

Printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne

My deepest thanks as ever to my wife Stavroula for her love and support, without which this book would not have been written

Tables

Figures

Acknowledgements

This volume would not have been written without the generous sabbatical scheme of the Department of Sociology, City University London, which allowed me to take research time. I would like to express my gratitude to the anonymous reviewers of the book proposal for their welcome comments and suggestions at the beginning of this effort. I am indebted to Cees Hamelink for providing the Guest Foreword and to Robert Picard, Marc Raboy, Philip Napoli and Terry Flew for writing the blurbs for the back cover. I am also very grateful to Peter Humphreys, Steven Barnett, Jeanette Steemers and Mark Wheeler, who commented on earlier incarnations of this volume. Thanks are due to two institutions that hosted me during periods of working on this book: the Central European University of Budapest and the Technological University of Cyprus. Thanks also to the Media, Communications and Cultural Studies Association policy network, from which I derived useful information and inspiration. Catherine Mitchell at Palgrave Macmillan has provided helpful advice throughout this project and I am grateful for her enthusiasm and support. Responsibility for any remaining errors, omissions and confusions is, of course, entirely mine. Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publisher will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

Preface

This book addresses what I perceive to be an increasingly prominent subject in the field of media and communications, and one that has attracted increased attention in areas such as sociology, economics, political science and law: global media policy and regulation. Specifically, the book considers the wider social, political, economic and technological changes arising from the globalization of the communications industries and assesses their impact on matters of regulation and policy. It focuses on the convergence of the communication and media industries and makes reference to the paradigmatic shift from a system based on the tradition of public service in broadcasting and telecommunications delivery to one that is demarcated by commercialization, privatization and competition.

The book tackles a key question in the field: to what extent do new media developments require changes in regulatory philosophy and objectives? Within the current complex and rapidly changing environment, there is a need to comprehend the interactions between broadcasting, telecommunications, the press and the Internet in order to assess whether technological and industry convergence can result in international regulatory convergence. Therefore, policy researchers should look beyond national communications policies and acknowledge the international dimension of political and regulatory decision-making. In exploring the different regulatory modes and the interplay between the local and the global in policymaking, this book proposes various possible meanings of the public interest concept.

The book aims to enhance the readers knowledge and understanding of policy and regulatory issues, particularly at global level. Thus it assesses the impact of the technological, market, political and regulatory changes that affect the communications industries and discusses how media policymakers have reacted to these challenges mainly in the USA, the UK and the European Union. The unique features of this book are, first, the effort to integrate policy relating to print media, broadcasting, telecommunications networks and the Internet, and second, the reflection of the international scope of regulatory philosophy and objectives. The book incorporates and synthesizes the wide-ranging relevant academic literature in the field and there is an extended discussion on existing methodologies concerning the internationalizing of policy and regulation and the role of national delivery of policy. The book is grounded in theory and research related to the meaning of the public interest concept in media policymaking, which is considered to be the most appropriate analytical framework for a book of this type. The books other principal original feature is an empirical survey that outlines new industrial changes and policy/regulatory responses.

Through its strong theoretical and empirical grounding this publication is intended primarily as a detailed monograph. However, it can also serve as an advanced text for graduate students in the field of media and communications, especially through its thorough incorporation of the relevant literature. Scholars, industrialists and policymakers could benefit from the books rigorous examination of the policy implications of increasing media globalization and the ongoing processes of technological convergence.

Guest Foreword