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- Volume 10, Issue 1, 2019
Journal of Digital Media & Policy - Volume 10, Issue 1, 2019
Volume 10, Issue 1, 2019
- Editorial
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- Articles
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The challenge of forward-looking regulation
By Chi OnwurahGood regulation must be forward looking, otherwise it is quickly obsolete. The 2003 Communications Act asked what the communications industries would look like in ten years’ time and set out a regulatory framework to address future developments in the interests of citizens and consumers. It decided that the key theme of the next ten years would be the convergence of platforms, industries and services including audio-visual. It created Ofcom – a converged regulator that had the right powers to deal with a converged world. When Chi Onwurah was Head of Telecoms Technology at Ofcom, she worked closely with industry and legislators in the United Kingdom and across Europe to ensure that citizens and consumers benefitted from convergence. This was possible thanks to the forward-looking regulatory framework that had been put into place by the 2003 Act. There was a long period of debate and discussion with a green paper and a white paper before the 2003 Communications Act was passed. This was necessary to understand the likely impact of convergence. The next big transformation in communications is data – and we are not even in the discussion stage, let alone in a position to legislate. From the regulation of opaque machine learning algorithms to fake news to data rights, technological evolution is generating challenges legislators and regulators do not seem close to solving. In this article the author will discuss these issues and the need to bring about forward-looking changes to the law.
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The digital democratic dividend
More LessThis commentary proposes a public campaign to counter the threat to standards of journalism posed by the expansion of digital media. It looks in particular at the lack of editorial oversight of material purporting to be news offered by Internet search and social media services. The call to regulate these services in order to combat so-called ‘fake news’ comes up against the awkward question of ‘who would regulate in the name of whom?’. To picture a way forward it is necessary to understand the governance framework within which these services operate. This leads to the answer that effective action will require pressure from civil society and the traditional media.
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The multifaceted policy challenges of transnational Internet-distributed television
More LessAs services such as Netflix and Amazon Video have overcome the business challenges that long stymied the technological potential of Internet-distributed television, they have also introduced a range of policy challenges. Not only do these services lack governance by a clear regulatory regime in many countries, but their entrance to the competitive field of audio-visual service providers refigures the policy established for broadcast, cable and satellite industries. These challenges are simultaneously opportunities, as Internet-distributed television also provides tools that might effectively achieve policy goals.
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Internet regulation as media policy: Rethinking the question of digital communication platform governance
Authors: Terry Flew, Fiona Martin and Nicolas SuzorThis article identifies the current global ‘techlash’ towards the major digital and social media platforms as providing the context for a renewed debate about whether these digital platform companies are effectively media companies (publishers and broadcasters of media content), and implications this has for twenty-first-century media policy. It identifies content moderation as a critical site around which such debates are being played out, and considers the challenges arising as national and regionally based regulatory options are considered for digital platforms that are ‘born global’. It considers the shifting balance between the ‘social contract’ of public interest obligations and democratic rights of free speech and freedom of expression.
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Literacy of digital television policies: A case-study analysis of audiences’ knowledge and ‘willingness-to-know’ in Flanders, Belgium
Authors: Anne-Sofie Vanhaeght, Karen Donders and Leo Van AudenhoveThis article explores what media users know about media policy, what they expect to know and if they care. We adopted a case-study approach, researching this question for the region of Flanders based on a combination of both quantitative and qualitative data. We focused on knowledge of digital television and compared these findings with knowledge on emerging Internet policies. One objective was to assess whether there is a difference between people’s knowledge of the former, older and the latter, newer and emerging policy domain. While the article focuses on the case of Flanders, its theoretical basis, as well as conclusions, are relevant beyond this specific context. They show that knowledge of media policies is low. Nevertheless, it seems that ‘willingness-to-know’ about policies is higher for issues such as privacy and data than for, more traditional media policy areas related to digital television.
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The governance of digital switchover of terrestrial television in the European Union: The role of policy framing
More LessDigital switchover of (DSO) of terrestrial broadcasting constitutes one of the most critical moments of policy change in Europe because it offered a unique opportunity of reconceptualising public media space for the next era of communication. The promise of a plural and public service oriented broadcast policy legitimized efforts of citizens investing in digitization, provided public acceptance and approval to the changes set to terminate analogue television. This article explores the policy framing of the switchover process in the European Union. It finds that DSO was constructed around overly technical and economic frames in the policy, a strategy, which allowed building an argument of neutrality of technology and hence of the steps policy-makers were making. This construction did not address the exclusion and side-lining of the social and political consequences of free-to-air reduction. The article argues that this practice provided a low-conflict policy process led by the European Commission between 2005 and 2015 and showcased a paradox on European spectrum policy. The article further argues that the governance of digitalization of Europe’s screens presents a case of highly complex low-salience regulatory policy, which means muted participation of citizens and limited public debate. Ultimately, this strategy undermines democratic practice and meaningful transparency in European policy-making as it eliminates deliberations on what constitutes public interest in the 21st media context. The analyses of communication DSO policy as a matter of polity situate well with European media governance scholarship.
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The return of public media policy in New Zealand: New hope or lost cause?
More LessThe formation of a new coalition government in New Zealand in the wake of the 2017 election ended three terms of National-led governments and raised the prospect of a significant shift in media policy. National had insisted that in the digital media ecology, the funding of public broadcasting institutions was no longer a priority and that platform-neutral contestable funding of local content would ensure the quality and diversity of content. This saw the demise of the TVNZ Charter and its two commercial-free channels (TVNZ 6 and 7), while both Radio New Zealand (RNZ) and the local content funding agency, NZ On Air, had their funding frozen. The 2017 election of the Labour-NZ First-Green government came with the promise of an additional investment of NZ$38m in public media, the expansion of RNZ’s remit to include a commercial-free television channel, and the establishment of an independent commission to assess funding needs for public media. However, the media ecology Labour now faces entails new policy complexities. Deregulation, financialization and convergence have not only intensified commercial pressures on the media, they have led to important shifts in the ways audiences discover and engage with media content. In turn, this complicates the traditional models of state intervention intended to deliver public service outcomes. Adopting a critical institutionalist framework this article will highlight key shifts in media policy trajectory since 1999 and highlight some key differences between the public broadcasting initiatives of 1999–2008 and the approach thus far of the incoming government. The article analyses how competing intra-party and inter-ministerial priorities have circumscribed the media policy options available and thereby highlight the way political–economic interests in the media ecology manifest in public policy.
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Video-on-demand services in Latin America: Trends and challenges towards access, concentration and regulation
Authors: Mariela Baladron and Ezequiel RiveroIn this article, an analysis of the over-the-top video on demand (VOD OTT) services’ market in Latin America is proposed, to account for its penetration, relationship with traditional pay-TV, content policies and current (and nowadays under debate) regulations for the sector. The analysis departs from a comparative study on the five main audio-visual markets of the region: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico, within which it is analysed Netflix, the predominant VOD OTT service. First, it will be argued that Internet’s potential to generate higher levels of competition and diversity from online distribution of audio-visual content has been limited by practices of vertical integration between a few new entrants and pre-existing, dominant players of the infocommunications industry. Secondly, the State’s role as a guarantor of public interest is discussed, particularly in periphery contexts with deeply structural asymmetries, as is the case in the countries mentioned above.
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- Book Reviews
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