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The author explores the state of communication and media studies during the 21st century. It states that external and internal factors affect media studies such as humanistic and social scientific approaches to research. The author looks at the development communication in the U.S. in he 1950s as well as cultural imperialism in the 1970s.

The article reports on the development and challenges related to global media studies. It examines the consequences of the change in global power away from advanced countries such as the U.S. The author also explores the effect of technical change in the media in the advanced countries in the Northern region of the world.

Debates on media concentration and the appropriate way to handle it are not coming to an end. This article stresses the dual character of media goods, the underlying ideological ideals, and the attendant institutional setting as sources of value conflict in communications policy making. It discusses this value conflict and gives examples of where it surfaces and how it is confronted. It is particularly evident in cases of media concentration. Newly introduced communications laws and policies within Europe and the US aim to reduce (ownership) regulation, promote competition and cope with the challenges posed by convergence. This quest is coupled in part with protections of media pluralism through custom-developed indices for measuring concentration in media markets and tests for assessing media plurality in merger cases. The article describes and discusses these new methods and instruments as novel but imperfect attempts by policy makers to respond to the various challenges in communications such as value conflict, convergence, the need for empirical proof and claims for non-economic ways of assessing media diversity. It concludes by stressing the need to re-emphasize normative claims as essential guiding elements of communications policy making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication systems are now converging, but communication policy has evolved to treat different media differently. Most solutions for a post-convergence communication policy are adjustments to inherited regulatory categories. Instead, this article revisits the underlying goals of policy-making across all media. First, the article presents a conceptual model for the communication policy process as one of inertia punctuated by crisis. Second, it applies this model to a very brief history of policy in the US, considering print, post, telephony, broadcasting and the internet. Third, from this analysis it suggests useful approaches in a converged environment, distinguishing three underlying goals for policy: the right to public dissemination, the right to private exchange and the right to design communication platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is an empirical study based on US and European experiences and their applicability to Spanish reality. It is based on a number of sectoral analyses. The article aims to discuss the transformations of the cultural industries, their adaptation to the Digital Age and the new system of communication and culture that is shaping up in the most developed countries. It is argued that although the changes ushered in by the widespread adoption of digital technologies have been profound, we have to see current transformations in relation to the continuing weight of traditional media and organizational structures. There is a major challenge for communications policy in balancing the needs for public services agaisnt the pressures of commercialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the nature of the television market in the U.S., the impact of the dominant paradigms in shaping the media in Australia and the adoption of new technologies in Great Britain.