Media Regulation

Peter Lunt is Professor of Media and Communication at the University of Leicester. Hisresearch interests include audience research, popular television, the publicunderstanding of media regulation and media and social theory. He is currentlyworking on a project on media, history and memory and on the changingunderstanding of public service broadcasting. He is the author of five booksincluding Talk on Television (withSonia Livingstone, Routledge, 1994) and StanleyMilgram (Palgrave, 2010) and many academic papers and chapters.Sonia Livingstone DPhil (Oxon), OBE, FBA, FBPS, FAcSS, FRSA, is a professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Taking a comparative, critical and contextualised approach, her research examines how changing conditions of mediation reshape everyday practices and possibilities for action. She has published 20 books on media audiences, children and young people’s risks and opportunities, media literacy and rights in the digital environment, including “Parenting for a Digital Future: How hopes and fears about technology shape children’s lives” (OUP 2020). Since founding the EC-funded 33 country “EU Kids Online” research network, and Global Kids Online (with UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti), she has advised DCMS, UKCIS, Ofcom, European Commission, European Parliament, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, OECD, ITU and UNICEF. She chaired LSE’s Truth, Trust and Technology Commission and is currently leading the Digital Futures Commission with the 5Rights Foundation. See www.sonialivingstone.net

• Media and Communications Regulation and the Public InterestIntroductionRegulation and the Role of the StateRegulation, Civil Society and the Public SphereMarket Innovation versus Social Democratic ValuesIntroducing the Case StudiesRegulation and the Public InterestFrom Government to GovernanceThe Theory of RegulationStrategies of RegulationNew Labour, Social Democracy and RegulationThe European ContextThe UK ContextRegulation and the Public InterestOfcom′s Core Purposes: A Discursive StruggleMedia Regulation and the Implied AudienceThe Communications Act 2003: In Whose Interest?Ofcom′s Remit: Interpreting Its Primary DutiesActions to Further Citizens′ and Consumers′ InterestsCitizen Interests in a Wider PerspectiveOfcom as a Regulatory AgencyOfcom′s Remit and RationaleFrom Guiding Principles to Working PracticesCore Business: Telecommunications, Spectrum Management and Media PluralityOfcom as an Institution in the Public SphereThe Content Board and (Communications) Consumer PanelDefining Citizen and Consumer Interests in PracticePublic Views of RegulationConclusionOfcom′s Review of Public Service TelevisionIntroductionPublic Service Broadcasting in the 1980s and 1990sOfcom′s Remit in Reviewing Public Service TelevisionOfcom′s First Review of Public Service TelevisionA Public Service for AllOfcom′s Second Public Service Television ReviewOfcom′s Consultation on the Second ReviewConclusionMedia LiteracyA New Lease of Life for an Old PolicyA Puzzling Task for the New RegulatorDefinitional Diversity in EuropeMedia Literacy as a Neo-Liberal PolicyThe Politics of Media LiteracyFrom Media Literacy to Digital ParticipationFrom Principles to PracticeFrom Individual Skills to Social CapabilitiesConclusionAdvertising Regulation and Childhood ObesityIntroductionRegulating Advertising to ChildrenThe Challenges of Evidence-Based PolicyRegulatory Action and ReactionRegulatory Effectiveness?Reflections on Evidence-Based PolicyConclusionCommunity RadioIntroductionThe Community Radio Order 2004Regulating Community RadioEvaluating Ofcom′s Regulation of Community RadioConclusionConclusionsA Change of DirectionThe Power to Make PolicyOn the Value of an Independent RegulatorConclusionsAfterword

An exemplary study of how media regulation works (and, by implication, how it could work better) set within a wider discussion of democratic theory and political values. It will be of interest not only to students and scholars but to people around the world grappling with the same problem: the need to regulate markets, and the difficulty of doing this well.