Book review: European media: structures, politics and identity

Examining interactions between global, regional and national media processes, European Media emphasises the transformation of political communication in Europe and the alleged emergence of a European public sphere and identity. Damian Tambini finds it offers an excellent overview and reference on some of the big shifts that characterise the evolving media scene in Europe

Reforming consumer representation in UK communications

Communications consumers in the UK do not switch provider enough, and when they do they sometimes do so irrationally. As the government conducts a welcome review of the landscape of consumer representation in the UK, they should be aware that there is an ongoing, permanent need for consumer representation that is specific to the communications sector. The government’s proposals, by shifting consumer advocacy to the Citizen’s Advice Bureau, are likely to result in an increase in costs to the public purse. Within the current model Ofcom and its consumer panel receive almost half their funding from the private sector. If the body is moved to Citizens Advice, the proportion met by public funding will be higher. The fast changing, technical complexity of the communications sector makes a consumer representative particularly important. Consumer advocacy in communications will be most efficient if it is within Ofcom, but has much more effective operational independence from it

Comms Review Series: De-regulation not popular with Charities and Consumer Groups

Charities and consumer groups were the second most represented category among the 168 responses to Jeremy Hunt’s open letter, but they are hardly a cohesive bunch. They can generally be divided into three categories: those that campaign for the right of certain populations such as children or those with disabilities; general consumer advocacy groups; and media focused watchdog organisations. Despite their different interests and causes, as a composite group they were overwhelmingly not in favour of further de-regulation

Evidence or political will? DEA, Hargreaves and the future of UK copyright regulation

Having launched a policy brief in March criticizing the Digital Economy Act (DEA) in relation to copyright and file-sharing and with Parliament’s BIS committee looking into the Hargreaves Report on intellectual property, it seems to be a good time to re-examine the issues at stake. Here is what happened since March on the copyright regulation front

Where next for web blocking in the UK?

Now that the government has backed down from enforcing the web blocking provisions of the Digital Economy Act, questions are being raised as to how this issue will move forward. UK rights owners will not be falling on their swords any time soon, meaning that this issue is far from resolved

A Blog Series: Time for a Plurality Dialogue

Over the coming weeks, this blog will host insight from leading world experts focusing on the topic of the role of new digital intermediaries in the context of traditional media policy concerns with media pluralism and editorial responsibility. We are pleased to announce that Robin Foster will outline his views in a starting blog post next week, and we will have contributions from Philip Napoli, Natali Heilberger, Emily Bell, Robin Mansell and others. In this post, the LSE’s Damian Tambini outlines some of the key questions they will address – and their relevance to questions that European regulators and governments are currently wrestling with

House of Lords Debate on Media Plurality: Calling for Government Action

Efforts are being made to address the issue of media plurality at both the UK and European level. Concerns about excessive concentration of media ownership rose to the surface in the aftermath of the hacking scandal, and Leveson’s recommendations for reforming plurality rules propelled the issue up the political agenda

Will there be a green paper?

The Leveson Inquiry is playing havoc with the government’s plans to bring forward proposals for a new Communications Act. This exchange yesterday in the Commons between newly appointed Shadow Culture Secretary Harriet Harman and Jeremy Hunt

Online rights debate: A laughing matter?

As Julian Huppert MP made the closing remarks at the Westminster eForum seminar on implementing the Digital Economy Act, he commented that the interested parties had not quite reached a consensus on the issue. It seemed an indicator of the state of the debate that his wry understatement was quickly greeted by a roomful of laughter. In the context of the implementation of the DEA, discussions on how to handle rights and piracy online still reflect severely diverging views, and some proposals are being laughed off as unclear and or unworkable