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This chapter offers a critique of contemporary dynamics of media power and their likely direction of travel given current geopolitical realities and uncertainties. It then shifts gear to imagine other possible media futures with new ways of coordinating and producing media as part of a more general ‘politics of hope’. The chapter includes both critical reflections on media ownership, journalism and content and empirical research drawn from the authors' involvement in the Media Reform Coalition, an advocacy network that campaigns for increased accountability and diversity in and independence of the media.

The UK media’s handling of the coronavirus crisis has been a shambles, argues writer and academic Des Freedman. We need to demand more.

Introduction to special section on manifestos for 'Media Theory' journal.

Report on the inquiry, chaired by Lord Puttnam, that examined the future of public service television in the UK in the 21st century

Reaction to the green paper on the future of the BBC

Media power is a crucial, although often taken for granted, concept. We assume, for example, that the media are ‘powerful'; if they were not, why would there be so many controversies over the regulation, control and impact of communicative institutions and processes? Further, we assume that this ‘power' is somehow problematic; audiences are often treated as highly susceptible to media influence and too much ‘power' in the hands of one organization or individual is seen as risky and potentially dangerous. Such concerns have motivated a whole series of academic texts on media impact, influence and effects. Yet it is still not clear what we mean by media power or how effective it is. \ud \ud This book evaluates contrasting definitions of media power and looks at the key sites in which power is negotiated, concentrated and resisted - politically, technologically and economically. Combining an evaluation of both previous literature and new research, the book seeks to establish an understanding of media power which does justice to the complexities and contradictions of the contemporary social world. It will be important reading for undergraduates, postgraduates and scholars alike.

In 2005, the British communications regulator Ofcom released its review of public service broadcasting (PSB), the remit governing the majority of broadcasters throughout British broadcasting history.\ud \ud While supporting a continuing role for PSB in a digital era, Ofcom found that the arrangement whereby commercial broadcasters provided public service programming in return for access to the airwaves was breaking down because of the declining value of analogue spectrum in the run-up to the switchover to digital television. In this situation, Ofcom, as the body with statutory responsibility for ensuring broadcast diversity and with specific oversight over commercial channels, concluded that the BBC was likely to end up as the near monopoly provider of PSB. It therefore recommended the creation of a new competitive supplier of PSB content, a Public Service Publisher (PSP), whose role would be to facilitate the creation of innovative and publicly engaged material.

The Politics of Media Policy provides a critical perspective on the dynamics of media policy in the US and UK and offers a comprehensive guide to some of the major points of debate in the media today. While many policymakers boast of the openness and pluralism of their media systems, this book exposes the commitment to market principles that saturates the media policy environment and distorts the development and application of democratic media policies.\ud \ud Based on interviews with dozens of politicians, regulators, special advisers, lobbyists and campaigners, The Politics of Media Policy considers how governments, civil servants and media corporations have shaped the drawing up of rules concerning a range of issues including media ownership, media content, public broadcasting, digital television, copyright and trade agreements.

When we are told so regularly that we live in a ‘post truth’age and are surrounded by ‘fake news’, it can be tempting to think of politics as primarily mediated. Discussion and analysis of public affairs is preoccupied with the power and reach of platforms or the passion and rage of social media exchanges. As important as these issues may be, a focus on the communicative risks downgrading the political. Media, Democracy and Social Change puts politics back into political communications. It shows how even within a digital media ecology, the wider context of neoliberal capitalism remains essential for understanding what political communications is, and can hope to be. Tackling broad themes of structural inequality, technological change, political realignment and social transformation, the book explores political communications as it relates to debates around the state, infrastructures, elites, populism, political parties, activism and social movements, the legacies of colonialism, and more. It is both an expert introduction to the field of political communications, and a critical intervention to help re-imagine what a democratic politics might mean in a digital age. It will be essential reading for students, researchers and activists across both media and communication studies and politics.

The growth of the internet has been spectacular. There are now more than 3 billion internet users across the globe, some 40 per cent of the world’s population. The internet’s meteoric rise is a phenomenon of enormous significance for the economic, political and social life of contemporary societies.\ud \ud However, much popular and academic writing about the internet continues to take a celebratory view, assuming that the internet’s potential will be realised in essentially positive and transformative ways. This was especially true in the euphoric moment of the mid-1990s, when many commentators wrote about the internet with awe and wonderment. While this moment may be over, its underlying technocentrism – the belief that technology determines outcomes – lingers on and, with it, a failure to understand the internet in its social, economic and political contexts.\ud \ud Misunderstanding the Internet is a short introduction, encompassing the history, sociology, politics and economics of the internet and its impact on society. This expanded and updated second edition is a polemical, sociologically and historically informed guide to the key claims that have been made about the online world. It aims to challenge both popular myths and existing academic orthodoxies that surround the internet.

Report on the inquiry, chaired by Lord Puttnam, that examined the future of public service television in the UK in the 21st century:\ud \ud The Inquiry, launched in November 2015, has focused on the purposes of television in an era characterised by technological transformations, shifts in audience consumption habits, and changes in cultural and political attitudes. The report reflects on the extent to which the UK’s most popular television channels have addressed these issues and whether they continue to represent the interests and tell the stories of all the citizens of the UK. Above all, the report seeks to highlight the conditions that may allow for the production and circulation of high quality, creative and relevant public service content in these increasingly complex circumstances.