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Public service media (PSM) have long been seen as the necessary counterweight to the failures of a market model. Given the rise of private corporate power over communications systems, PSM have long been claimed to the be the 'heart of a heartless world' – spaces dominated not by the relentless logic of capital but by broader ambitions that involve citizen participation, social improvement and knowledge acquisition. This article offers a different interpretation. It argues that at their very best, PSM have improved an otherwise anaemic commercial landscape; at their worst, they are simply an accessory to state actors and contaminated media markets that reproduce elite power. Media practices and institutions based on the public service idea all too often lack the accountability and indeed the fundamental democratic oversight of the publics in whose name they operate. This article seeks first to contrast the values and structures of public service media with those of wholly commercial models and illustrates some of the 'defensive' arguments and initiatives that have been developed in response to threats to PSM. The article then explores a series of arguments that problematise what is often a reflexive defence of PSM. It considers whether being non-commercial necessarily positions an institution as pro-public and focuses on the role of the state in the creation of PSM institutions. It argues that the gap between normative accounts of public service and their institutional structures is not an accident or an aberration but reflects the structural imbalances of power built into PSM. Finally, the article analyses the different ways in which 'the public' has been conceptualised and deployed in the operational models of PSM, often as the 'masses' or as individuals in need of enlightenment or as sovereign consumers, but rarely as active agents of social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamics of and the balance of power in the media policy-making process in both the U.S. and the U.K. are discussed in order to assess the legitimacy of these competing perspectives. An attempt is made to mark out some of the similarities and differences between media policy-making in the US and the UK.

The usefulness of the public inquiry for media reform is examined through a study of Lord Annan's Committee on the Future of Broadcasting established in 1974 under the UK Labour government. Topics include the demands for reform leading up to the inquiry, the launch of the Annan Committee, and the influence of the left on the committee.

This article sets out the emergent challenges and opportunities for developing effective and 'future proof' policy for regulating media plurality. This analysis is carried out against the backdrop of UK authorities' 2018 public interest test of the proposed merger between 21st Century Fox and Sky, and the latest data on the UK media ownership landscape. That merger review established important precedents for plurality reform, particularly in its acknowledgement that digital intermediaries are not an inherently pluralizing force and that regulatory intervention is needed to prevent concentrations of agenda power, especially at the level of wholesale newsgathering. The article goes on to critically examine the existing regulatory approach to considerations of whether media mergers are in the public interest, especially in the light of mounting evidence of intensifying consolidation within and across news platforms. This article argues that effective plurality reform must start with new legislation that sets out indicative thresholds and detailed guidance on the meaning of plurality sufficiency. This will enable a proper assessment of plurality outside merger activity and could serve as the basis for periodic reviews, enabling regulators to respond effectively to the challenge of new technologies and dynamic market conditions. We also address problems in the plurality measurement framework developed by Ofcom, namely, the inclusion of digital intermediaries as news 'sources' in data collection and analysis. In light of findings from the Fox/Sky merger review, a more effective approach would be to reallocate consumption attributed to major intermediaries based on analysis of the actual news sources consumed via those platforms. Far from privileging intermediaries, this approach will provide a more robust basis on which to bring them into the fold of plurality regulation, namely, through the development of plurality standards for algorithm governance. Such an approach also reflects a new reality in which the interplay of gatekeeping and agenda power between traditional media and intermediaries is not a zero-sum game, amidst growing evidence that major intermediaries are serving to consolidate rather than diversify the news offer in favour of incumbent and mostly legacy publishers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professional journalism is under extraordinary pressure: not only are its traditional business models under enormous strain but it is also regularly accused by the Right of peddling 'fake news' and criticized by the Left for failing to play a robust monitorial role. In this situation, there is a temptation to see public service media, and the BBC in particular, as beacons of light in an otherwise gloomy picture. This article attempts to provide a note of caution to those who see the public service model as the most effective means of holding power to account and as the most desirable alternative to the flawed news cultures of both commercial and authoritarian landscapes. It considers some of the structural and institutional factors that constrain the BBC's journalism and suggests that its intimate relationship with elite power has long undermined its ability to act as a reliable and independent check on power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Far right populist politicians and movements have secured high levels of visibility thanks to often compliant media outlets and unregulated digital platforms. The pursuit of media coverage and the communication of rage are no longer incidental but essential to the growth of reactionary populisms. Yet, while prominent liberal media outlets are 'aghast' at events such as the election of Donald Trump and the Brexit vote, little attention has been paid to the structural conditions and policy frameworks that have facilitated the circulation of clickbait and misinformation, together with the incessant coverage of their leaders, that have been exploited by far right movements. This article identifies four areas of 'media policy failure' that have nurtured highly skewed media environments and concludes by calling for a new policy paradigm based around redistribution that aims to reconstruct media systems in order to undermine the appeal of populist forces on the far right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reflects on how academics might best respond to the social, political and economic crises that are unfolding in the contemporary world: for example, increased inequality within nations, falling levels of trust in established political institutions, the growth of populist movements that seek to use racism and sexism to divide populations and the failure of the media to scrutinise successfully current dangers. In particular, in light of intensified marketisation of and managerialism within higher education, the article asks how communication scholars should respond to a situation in which the media are seen as intimately connected to both the emergence of and solution to these crises. To what extent should academics remain aloof from grassroots movements or should their research and teaching inform campaigns for social justice? The article discusses how academics are simultaneously urged to “engage” in the social world in order to achieve “impact” and to retain a scholarly detachment that protects their “neutrality”. It argues that media studies, however, should not (and probably cannot) be insulated from fundamental questions of power and injustice, and suggests that academics should refuse the false binary between “scholarly” and “political” activity to pursue a “committed” approach to their work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Europe is in crisis. Millions of its citizens are living in poverty and subject to sustained programmes of austerity that are widening the gap between rich and poor. Communicative possibilities are squeezed by the realities of media market behaviour: public service broadcasters are facing challenges of legitimacy and funding while established news outlets are increasingly distrusted by audiences. Despite the scale of the crisis, however, there appears to be little appetite amongst media researchers to develop a professional or policy response that rises to the challenge and attempts to offer necessary solutions. This article reflects on existing policy norms and suggests that we need fresh ones that better articulate how best to respond to neoliberalisation and both communicative and economic crisis. Rhetorical commitments to democracy, free speech, privacy and transparency are being squeezed by a more pragmatic emphasis on efficiency and competition, leaving little room for more expansive ambitions of social justice and equality. By focusing on several case studies, the article argues that we need more radical policy frames to confront the serious attacks we are facing on the public media and the public interest more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies have demonstrated that media policy is not a clean, administrative, depoliticized, and unproblematically evidence-based space but instead, an ideological power field in which certain preferences are confirmed and others marginalized. In this context, this article proposes that we focus on the fetishistic character of the media policy process, understood in relation to the loss of control over the decision-making arena and the outsourcing of political agency to external forces. The article focuses on both the dimensions of “everyday fetishism” (its capacity to naturalize commodification processes and to reify social life) as well as its relevance to media policy debates concerning press freedom and the pursuit of media pluralism. It reflects on how a fetishistic policy distorts key policy principles, restricts access to policymaking arenas and mystifies the process as a whole so that it becomes a “spectral” activity from which ordinary citizens are largely excluded. The article finally considers three key ways in which publics can re-connect themselves to the policy process and, in doing so, to invigorate and democratize the struggles for media justice we face today. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Media power is a crucial, although often taken-for-granted concept. Does it express the economic impact of the industry, the political influence of particular 'media moguls,' or the media's capacity to modify attitudes and beliefs? Does it refer to the ability of media to provide state or corporate actors with a valuable tool to assert their own dominance or to the diffusion of symbolic resources? Are we to believe that the media are increasingly the locus of power or that they constitute the space where power is decided? In order to address this dilemma, this article identifies 4 paradigms-consensus, chaos, control, and contradiction-that best express established ways of conceptualizing the flows and relationships related to media power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concentrated media ownership has become an increasingly salient issue in the context of global demands for social justice and democracy. This article calls for cultural policy analysts to highlight issues of media ownership and maps out three approaches to ownership that are designed to provide a more holistic account of the problems and potential solutions. Attention is first paid to ‘metrics’ and the gathering of quantitative data; next, to the generation of normative models of media ownership; and then, to an ideological perspective on ownership that locates it in relation to systems of thought and action that privilege particular ways of thinking about and ordering the world. By arguing for a renewed focus on ownership that is based on the integration of all three perspectives into a more holistic methodology, the article aims to provide scholars with a conceptual and a strategic framework for understanding and intervening in ongoing debates about the dynamics of contemporary cultural industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In any consideration of the relationship between communication and global power shifts and of the ways in which the media are implicated in new dynamics of power, the concept of media power is frequently invoked as a vital agent of social and communicative change. This article sets out to develop a materialist approach to media power that acknowledges its role in social reproduction through the circulation of symbolic goods but suggests that we also need an understanding of media power that focuses on the relationships between actors, institutions, and contexts that organize the allocation of material resources concentrated in the media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores prospects for media reform in Great Britain, following the Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practice and ethics of the press. Lord Justice Brian Henry Leveson proposes the regulation of media ethics by voluntarily becoming a member of an independent regulatory structure. According to the authors, aside from addressing unethical and irresponsible journalism, good journalism should also be stimulated through incentives.

The article examines the international dimensions of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. in the light of the July 2011 events in which reporters working for its "News of the World" were found to have hacked into the mobile phone of a murdered teenager in Great Britain. It was noted that the events raised questions about the behaviour of News Corp. in other countries. Some of the articles on the impact of News Corp. in six countries and region including Latin America and Italy are discussed.

The article explores the implications of the telephone-hacking scandal involving the newspaper "News of the World" for communication policy in Great Britain. The incident demonstrates the influence of industry and political figures in thinking through the basis of policy. It also reveals the relationship between the preparations made for a new Communications Bill and a public inquiry into the ethics and regulation of the news media.

This paper examines the relationship between media and civil society in the UK and Ireland in relation to news content and ownership. We suggest a number of ways in which civil society associations can play a role in ensuring a healthy diversity of viewpoints and arenas for dissent in the media. We propose a form of tax incentive in the case of local mergers, or joint operations, that increase relations with civil society in order to facilitate and maintain levels of news coverage in the public interest. Reliance solely on fully commercial enterprises for the delivery of news and current affairs journalism - that purports to be for the public good and in the public interest - has not proved satisfactory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of media policy usually, and understandably, focuses on visible instances of policy action: of government intervention, regulatory activity, civil society engagement, and corporate initiatives. Less frequently considered is the process by which certain issues, frames, and proposals are neglected inside decision-making structures. This article reflects on the relationship between "industrial activism" and policy silences in relation to government desire to secure a digital communications infrastructure for the twenty-first century. It argues that policy analysts need to look beyond immediate and visible instances of decision making in the media field and examine the ideological processes of exclusion and marginalization that distort media policy making and undermine the emergence of alternative paradigms and policy outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The propaganda model is a powerful tool for explaining systematic flaws in media coverage. But does it explain the cracks and tensions within the commercial media that are capable of arising at moments of political crisis and elite disagreement? To what extent does the model privilege a flawless structuralist account of media power at the expense of focusing on contradictory dynamics inside the capitalist media? This article looks at a key moment where critical media content was generated by a mainstream media organization: the coverage of the run-up to the Iraq War in the British tabloid paper, the Daily Mirror in 2003. It reflects on the consequences of such a moment for resisting corporate media power and asks whether it suggests the need for a revision of the propaganda model or, rather, provides further validation of its relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers background information on the proposal of the Office of Communications (Ofcom) in Great Britain for a public service broadcasting (PSB) and considers the pros and cons of the PSP in connection to the public interest. In recent years, the stability and underlying justification for public service broadcasting have come under pressure from political, economic and technological factors. Although Ofcom was backing a continuing role for PSB in a digital era, it discovered that the traditional arrangement was breaking down.

Discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Sari Pietikäinen and Jaana Hujanen on the changing media landscape in Finland, and another by Nick Redfern on British cinema.

The article discusses the establishment of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) to be administered by the World Trade Organization. The objective of GATS is to ensure that key parts of the audiovisual service sector are progressively liberalized and privatized. The United States and the Central African Republic have made preliminary commitments in all subcategories of the audiovisual sector. A major criticism of the GATS is the secrecy and lack of transparency of the process.

Recent revisions of media regulation and legislation have emphasized diversity and pluralism as key objectives. Both the Federal Communication Commission's rewriting of broadcasting ownership rules in 2003 and the United Kingdom government's 2003 Communications Act insist that the public interest is best met through providing a dynamic, market-led approach to communications regulation. This article highlights definitions of diversity and pluralism that are increasingly ubiquitous in legislative and regulatory instruments that seek to "modernize" media systems in our present "communications cornucopia." This approach involves conceptualizing media diversity and media pluralism as twin outcomes of strategies designed to maximize consumer choice and market competition. The article argues that we need to challenge the assumption that meaningful forms of diversity can be brought forth only through market structures and questions the validity of quantitative assessments of media sectors that equate choice and competition with diversity. The article suggests that we need to win back a notion of diversity that is based on citizens' engagement with and interrogation of the world rather than the idea that diversity can be measured simply through the number of organizations and channels in the contemporary media environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The delicate compromise concerning the regulation of world trade in audio-visual materials is about to be upset. Ongoing negotiations under the World Trade Organisation's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) are seeking to establish, in the words of US negotiators, "clear, dependable and predictable trade rules" for transnational media exchanges. This article evaluates the impact of the GATS on audio-visual industries and considers the extent to which cultural industries fit into the framework of multilateral trade talks. Based on interviews with trade officials in the WTO and the UK Department of Trade and Industry, the article concludes that liberalising and deregulatory policy shifts are more likely to emanate from corporate and state environments than from the slow and detailed negotiations in WTO headquarters in Geneva where "defensive" interests appear to be dominating over "offensive" ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet provides a challenge to existing media structures and cultural values, particularly in the distribution of recorded music. Peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing sites like Napster and KaZaA have facilitated the widespread downloading of unlicensed music and the creation of a new kind of shared culture. In response, the established music industry is simultaneously attempting to undermine the impact of these exchanges (describing them as theft) and to take advantage of the possibilities of the Internet in reducing distribution costs and offering the possibility of a more direct relationship between labels and consumers. By drawing on both historical and contemporary analyses of the music industry, this article critiques the argument that digital downloads are necessarily hurting ‘legal’ record sales and then problematises dominant definitions of piracy. The article then evaluates the evolving strategies of the major record companies as they try to come to terms with P2P culture and concludes that, while they may have the resources and the legal clout to withstand the challenge, they lack the cultural capital embodied in these new decentralised systems of cultural distribution and consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization developments are presenting television programme-makers with the possibility of expanding programme sales on the international market. This article focuses on the various initiatives of the UK government to support an export-led strategy, and evaluates the consequences of such a strategy on domestic programming. Highlighting the current trend towards the sale of programme formats, the article further considers whether the increased circulation of television programmes around the world points to a model of interconnectedness and heterogeneity or whether it reinforces unequal patterns of media flows. Drawing on interviews with government advisers and regulators, the article concludes that the promotion of an export-led strategy is economically and culturally flawed and is linked to the UK government's strategy to liberalize trade in services rather than a commitment to increase cultural diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Raymond Williams was a prolific cultural commentator and historian and his writing on communications technology provides a particularly relevant framework for understanding contemporary information-society innovations. Williams sought to distinguish questions of technique and technical invention from their realization in the fundamentally social organization of technologies themselves and emphasized the importance of agency and intention in structuring the uses to which technologies are put. Far from technology having an inescapable internal logic of development, innovation takes place within specific social and economic contexts. For Williams, this meant that there was no pre-determined outcome to the evolution of communications innovations but a series of complex interactions between innovations and the world into which they emerge. This article will provide an assessment of Williams' work on technological innovation, his critique of determinism and his commitment to democratic communications. Williams helps us to challenge the simplistic proposition that 'the Internet has changed our world' and enables us to understand instead the ways in which contemporary social relations set limits on the development of the Internet as a democratic medium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the attitudes of British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and his Labor governments in the mid-1960s toward the British Broadcasting Corporation. Television industry issues in 1964; Evaluation of the ways in which the BBC was influenced by Labor rule; Analysis of the attitude of Wilson to the television industry in general.

Examines Labor Party's attitude to the introduction of commercial television in Great Britain. Degree of party's success in addressing the issue of television and choice as a way of repositioning before the electorate; Analysis of the official position of the party and its formal parliamentary opposition to commercial television; Contributions made by other elements of party's constituency.

Analyzes the Labour Party's initiatives in promoting Great Britain's mass media both for export purposes and for re-equipping the country with a more contemporary image. Assessment of the party's encouragement of British creativity; Stages of the party's promotional approach for mass media.

Presents abstracts of articles published in the fourth 1998 issue of the periodical 'Contemporary Politics.' Green political theorists within the confines of the liberal democratic state; Economic implications of the Nicaraguan state's ideology about women.