Media Policy Norms for a Europe in Crisis

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

Discourse, justification and critique: towards a legitimate digital copyright regime?

Digitization and the internet have posed an acute economic challenge to rights holders in the cultural industries. Faced with a threat to their form of capital accumulation from copyright infringement, rights holders have used discourse strategically in order to try and legitimate and strengthen their position in the digital copyright debate with governments and media users. In so doing, they have appealed to general justificatory principles – about what is good, right, and just – that provide some scope for opposition and critique, as other groups contest their interpretation of these principles and the evidence used to support them. In this article, we address the relative lack of academic attention paid to the role of discourse in copyright debates by analysing user-directed marketing campaigns and submissions to UK government policy consultations. We show how legitimacy claims are justified and critiqued, and conclude that amid these debates rests some hope of achieving a more legitimate policy resolution to the copyright wars – or at least the possibility of beginning a more constructive dialogue

Money, (Co)Production and Power in Digital

This article discusses the contribution of critical political economy approaches to digital journalism studies and argues that these offer important correctives to celebratory perspectives. The first part offers a review and critique of influential claims arising from self-styled new studies of convergence culture, media and creative industries. The second part discusses the contribution of critical political economy in examining digital journalism and responding to celebrant claims. The final part reflects on problems of restrictive normativity and other limitations within media political economy perspectives and considers ways in which challenges might be addressed by more synthesising approaches. The paper proposes developing radical pluralist, media systems and comparative analysis, and advocates drawing on strengths in both political economy and culturalist traditions to map and evaluate practices across all sectors of digital journalism

Hyperlocal media and the news marketplace

This chapter explores longstanding tensions between the private and public media sectors in the UK, focusing on new entrants to the ‘market’ or media landscape: hyperlocal and community websites and groups. Drawing on empirical evidence gathered by a collaborative research project and a range of policy and academic texts, it explores the benefits and drawbacks of a number of possible policy options for invigorating and sustaining local media, including methods of public subsidy, the development of charitably funded media, and the development of inter-organizational partnerships. It also considers a broader theoretical question about the assumptions of the ‘marketplace’ model used to develop pluralism-friendly policy: to what extent does this metaphoric terminology hinder the protection of media plurality and diversity of voices and editorial content