Comparative Media Policy, Regulation and Governance in Europe - Chapter 1: Chapter 1: Why Study Media Policy and Regulation?

By Hannu Nieminen

In the last several decades, the European media landscape has transformed in ways that were unpredictable. From the viewpoint of ordinary media users, these changes have offered increasing choices: new gadgets, services and channels are continuously entering the market. Behind this transformation and escalating choices lie numerous political and administrative decisions that regulate how the media industry works and how the choices of consumers are guided. The body of these decisions and their implementation is called media policy. Media policy affects all media functions and uses. It concerns, for example, questions such as: How to guarantee all citizens equal access to information networks? How to secure open public access for vital information? How to protect minors from harmful media content? As an academic field, media policy is still a rather new research area. It has close relations, among others, to political sociology, media economy, media and communications law, media ethics and obviously, to political studies. This shows that there are many different approaches to media policy studies. However, despite their differences, a common strand for many is a close relationship to critical political economy of communication.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Intellect Books
• Release date: Mar 16, 2018
• ISBN: 9781783209620

Hannu Nieminen

Hannu Nieminen (Ph.D., University of Westminster, London) is Professor of Media and Communications Policy at the Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki, Finland. From 2013, he is an Expert in Public Service for the Administrative Council of Yle (Finland’s national Public Service Broadcasting company). He is a member of the Euromedia Research Group (from 2009) as well as a member of the Board of Nordicom (2010–18).

Book preview

First published in the UK in 2018 by

Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK

First published in the USA in 2018 by

Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street,

Chicago, IL 60637, USA

Copyright © 2018 Intellect Ltd.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the

British Library.

Cover designer: Aleksandra Szumlas, Holly Rose

Copy-editor: MPS Technologies

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Typesetting: Contentra Technologies

Print ISBN: 978-1-78320-886-9

ePub ISBN: 978-1-78320-887-6

ePDF ISBN: 978-1-78320-888-3

Printed and bound by Hobbs, UK

This is a peer-reviewed publication.

Supported by the Open Access Publication Fund of the University of Salzburg.

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1: Why Study Media Policy and Regulation?

Hannu Nieminen

Preface

This new textbook is a follow-up to the Media in Europe Today book by the Euromedia Research Group (Intellect 2011), which turned out to be especially relevant for graduate and post-graduate media policy university courses across Europe. However, due to fast changes in the media ecosystem, the previous Media in Europe Today needed rethinking and an update. Being a collective project, this new book was discussed in several group meetings (Copenhagen, Cambridge and Budapest) and has gained coherence and consistency over time.

Like the previous Media in Europe Today, this new peer-reviewed book provides a comprehensive overview of the current European media in a period of more or less disruptive transformation. It maps the full scope of contemporary media policy and industry activities while also assessing the implications of new technologies and radical changes in distribution and consumption on media practices as well as organizations and strategies.

Bringing together contributions from media scholars in the Euromedia Research Group teaming up with invited authors, this book represents the continuation and further development of a long tradition of media policy books written by the group (Sage 1986, 1992, 1999; Nomos 2007; Intellect 2011; Routledge 2015). Focusing on the development of media structures and media policy within Europe, this volume benefits from 25 years of experience in the observation and critical analysis of trends within European media. This book is truly comparative in scope, combining the study of media systems with a thematic approach. Particular attention is paid to the state of affairs at the level of media platforms, approaching these from a functional perspective (i.e. news provision, opinion and debate, entertainment). The book tackles critical issues in comparative media policy, regulation and governance.

This new volume