Abstract
Media and communication inequalities have been addressed by scholars from different social sciences and humanities backgrounds. Wealth, income, gender, ethnic background and class have been particularly scrutinized. This book draws from multiple disciplinary traditions while aiming to analyse in depth alternative strands in which media inequalities take place. In line with previous collective projects, this edited volume of the Euromedia Research Group is another attempt to explore the new digital environment and its political ramifications through the theoretical lenses of a complex and challenging concept: inequality. Digitalisation is creating new modalities of communication inequalities and this book aims to address it both in analytical and normative terms.
The first two chapters set the theoretical ground of ‘inequality’ and ‘equality’. In chapter 1, Josef Trappel maps the development of inequalities in the digital regime since the 1990s, highlighting surviving inequalities and new ones. Examining the last decades, Trappel clarifies traditional inequalities (e.g. ownership concentration, gender gaps, knowledge gaps) and new and aggravated ones such as algorithmic filtering, big data, surveillance and social scoring). In chapter 2, Denis McQuail departs from two dominant narratives of public communication: technology and human agency. Taking an historical perspective, McQuail demonstrates how the fight for equality and freedom are critical in the history of public communication and makes clear that historic class and cultural differences have not been abolished by advances in education and welfare: ‘The media comprise cultural and material goods in themselves and their distribution reflects the underlying divisions and inequalities in each society’ (p. 31).
In chapter 3, Hannu Nieminen argues that we have entered times when increasing inequalities feed growing distrust in social and political institutions. Nieminen states that diminishing equality and lack of trust create a challenge to European democracies, as the media themselves became part of the process of normalizing inequality. If the growing gap between the haves and the have-nots is the ‘new normal’, the pivotal role of media in the democratic functioning is at stake and a radical change in the media systems and regulatory mechanisms is urgently needed.
Chapter 4 makes the overarching case that each new communication era across the last 200 years has introduced new economies of scale and fresh inequalities. In this chapter, Jeremy Tunstall demonstrates that the media have always produced extreme scale economies and audience inequalities. The new social communications exploit yet larger scale economies and are marked by yet larger audience/user inequalities as the Silicon Valley merges with the Hollywood industry.
In chapter 5, Stylianos Papathanassopoulos and Ralph Negrine bring political communication to the fore and explore how the contemporary communication landscape is challenging the study of political communication as new forces come to play a part in producing and transmitting messages across a whole range of media. Old fractures and new disruptions present a whole range of new problems that must be addressed to ensure the survival of some form of democratic process that is both inclusive and unified. In this chapter, populism is discussed but it is in the following chapter (6) that Barbara Thomass analyses in depth how economic inequalities in the European Union (EU) feed the non-appraisal and the lack of a feeling of belonging to the union. In fact, Thomass provides evidence of the inequalities in the EU and establishes correspondence to the non-appraisal of the EU.
Looking at the journalistic needs in Central and Eastern Europe, Péter Bajomi-Lázár investigates in chapter 7 how self-regulation has been addressing inequality of access to the media as a channel for information and expression in the context of the former state-socialist countries. Paying attention to acute inequalities, Bajomi-Lázár argues that the reasons for the failure of the self-regulatory mechanism in these new democracies are the distortion of media markets and the deficit of media freedom.
In chapter 8, Judit Bayer examines some normative regulatory aspects of furthering equality in the media. Although the new media environment has improved the potential for two important aspects of media equality (publishing and access to media content), Bayer argues that the new scarcity of attention hampers the fulfilment of the media’s democratic function. The possibilities of selection have expanded in a way that the ‘echo chambers reinforce and create new social clusters through media consumption, bolstering social inequality’ (p. 137).
Leen d’Haenens, Willem Joris and Quint Kik analyse in chapter 9 the recent and ongoing developments in the field of regional and local news provision in Europe, investigating the circumstances under which the latter contributes to creating and/or reducing inequalities. The focus of this chapter is the Dutch experience with local and regional news provision and it is shown that so far new media initiatives have not filled the gaps left behind by traditional media, increasing local and regional news inequalities.
Gender inequalities in media and communication are the object of debate in chapter 10. Claudia Padovani, Karin Raeymaeckers and Sara De Vuyst build on a consolidated body of knowledge and map out current international initiatives aimed at mainstreaming gender in and through the media. The authors argue that new lenses and approaches are needed to understand the new digital developments and globalization processes and they do so by addressing questions concerning the impact and implications of digital technologies in relation to working conditions in the news media and by discussing the potential for change that may derive from gender-aware media policies.
In chapter 11, Jeanette Steemers looks at how inequalities occur in the provision of screen content for children, focusing on the industry responses and structures. The chapter strongly argues for policy measures that create a financial base for the provision of screen content that fairly represents the diversity of the societies in which children find themselves. Moreover, it states that policy and practical interventions need to move away from top-down professional practices that focus on making content for children as opposed to ‘with them’, and enhance children’s participation through consultation and co-creation alongside children’s own creative efforts.
Elena Vartanova and Anna Gladkova discuss in chapter 12 the inequalities that emerged in parallel with, as a result of, the rise of digital media across the world. The analysis demonstrates that digital inequality is a multifaceted issue that has been developing over the course of time, and it is noticeably affected by the changing realities of digital media today. The chapter opens up the debate to multi-ethnicity, paying particular attention to the digital divide in Russia.
In chapter 13, Tristan Mattelart, Stylianos Papathanassopoulos and Josef Trappel address news and information at an era in which digital technologies were supposed to eradicate social inequality, establishing powerful counter-forces. The authors examine the digital over-optimism and demonstrate that present-day developments do not leave room for these celebratory discourses as they argue that digital technologies have rather added new layers to the existing news inequalities, in particular in the political economy of news.
Hallvard Moe discusses in chapter 14 inequality from the perspective of media use. It analyses patterns of news consumption and willingness to pay for news in three countries: Finland, Denmark and Norway. By zooming in on news consumption in these countries, it becomes clear how subtle inequalities play out within these societies. Moe argues that regulatory schemes need to be developed to facilitate quality news provision through channels that are free at the point of use.
In chapter 15, Auksė Balčytienė and Kristina Juraitė explore the idea of ‘inequality agency’ and examine it in the context of representation studies. Based on the European Social Survey data, this chapter claims that across Europe individuals are confronted with dissimilar contextual conditions and express different feelings and individual capacities to pursue and appreciate societal well-being in its fullest sense. The authors argue that ‘inequality in agency’ results from ‘inequality in representation’, which is linked with underlying differences between the dominant political and media systems, on the one hand, and the civil society structures, on the other.
The book closes with a chapter from Werner A. Meier ‘Towards a Policy for Digital Capitalism?’ This final chapter recognizes that democratic states and their respective civil societies face extraordinary difficulties in formulating and enforcing policies against leading transnational corporations. Moreover, as the previous chapters have demonstrated, social scientists too find it difficult to incorporate the diversity of new challenges into the national and global debate from a comprehensive perspective. Meier pays particular attention to the challenges and dangers posed by platforms such as Google, Amazon and Facebook and presents a number of policy and regulatory dimensions that must be addressed.
Overall, the book Digital Media Inequalities: Policies Against Divides, Distrust and Discrimination covers two main critical aspects: media and communication inequalities and the policy needs and concerns associated with new digital realities. Traditional media have imploded and platforms are overriding entertaining and informative needs. The need for policy and regulation is widely recognized as the overwhelming power of a few actors brings new social risks. This book makes a detailed diagnosis of the new layers of inequalities and new threats to human rights and public good while identifying directions for urgently needed research.