Abstract
The central theme of this book deals with the formulation and implementation of media and communication policy and regulation within the contemporary globalized context of the increased importance of institutions, markets and policy stakeholders that operate above and beyond the level of the nation-state. Iosifidis analyses and evaluates the impact on media policy and regulation of three analytically separate but practically interrelated trends – globalization, technological convergence and the neo-liberal discourse of marketization – and shows how the regulatory toolkit of national policymakers has been profoundly affected by these developments.
The book is divided into four sections. In the first Iosifidis unpacks the concept of the public interest, which he argues ‘has traditionally served as a “normative guidepost” for media policymakers’ (p. 23), and assesses its historical, contemporary and future relevance to media policy and regulation. In the contemporary era he argues that four trends in policy-making are apparent: an increased reliance on competition regulation, a quantification of the notion of public interest whereby its achievement has been increasingly subjected to measurable targets, the professionalization of the policy process and the transfer of some policy responsibilities from the national to the supranational and global levels. In section two the author reviews various theories of media globalization (such as modernization theory, cultural imperialism, critical political economy and various theories from the domain of cultural studies) and then assesses the relationship between globalization and the nation-state. Section three examines the role of a variety of supranational bodies in media and communication policy, including the World Trade Organization, UNESCO, the International Telecommunication Union and the European Union. The fourth section is devoted to a variety of issues subsumed under the general heading of convergence. The concept of convergence is analysed in terms of three levels – technological, industrial and markets. The significance of convergent regulatory issues and authorities (such as Ofcom in the UK and the FCC in the USA) is then critically evaluated, while in the final chapter Iosifidis sets out proposals for regulatory reform that embrace a mix of general competition law and media-specific regulation.
The author’s main arguments can be summarized as follows. First, the policy-making environment is now more complex than in the past when media and communication sectors (press, broadcasting, telecommunications) were relatively discrete entities and when the nation-state was by far the dominant actor in policy formulation and implementation. This means that supranational and global actors now play a more important role than heretofore in the media and communication policy sector. Second, and notwithstanding the previous point, the nation-state still plays an important, not to say primordial, role in many key aspects of the policy process including the organization and funding of public service broadcasting and the implementation of media ownership rules. Third, market forces, neo-liberal norms and a consumerist discourse have to a significant extent displaced a set of policy values based on the notion of the public interest. Finally, some form of specific regulation of ownership and content over and above competition rules should remain central features of the media and communication policy agenda if the public interest is to be preserved and promoted, as clearly the author thinks that it should be.
The many strengths of the book include the wide range of theoretical literature used and reviewed, notably in the chapters on public interest and on global communication; the author’s accessible writing style; his familiarity with a broad spectrum of empirical material; and the extensive and up-to-date bibliography. However, the book also suffers from some weaknesses. There is a tendency towards fragmentation in both the exposition of some arguments and the material organization of chapters. At times – as in the case of the final chapter that deals with guidelines for regulatory reform – this may result in the central analytic points of the chapter losing some of their coherence and clarity. There is also the occasional and slightly jarring conflation of analytic explanation and normative recommendation. For some potential readers one of the main defects of the book may be its overwhelming concentration on the UK, the USA and the EU (as a supranational entity rather than a group of nation-states) as the evidential base. There is little here that draws on the experience of individual continental European countries, emerging nations or potential new media superpowers such as China or India. It must be noted, however, that Iosifidis is very well aware of any limitations in his use of an ‘Anglo-American paradigm’ (p. 19) and provides a stout explanatory defence of his approach at the end of the book’s Introduction.
This monograph undoubtedly makes a significant contribution to an emergent field in communication studies. There is much here to stimulate researchers and policymakers engaged in global media, particularly those wrestling with the policy and regulatory implications of technological, industrial and political change, and it is to be hoped that a paperback version will soon follow, so that graduate students in particular may derive full benefit from the scope and depth of the author’s analysis.