Media policy

Media policy / M. politics is a term describing all legislation and political action directed towards regulating the media, especially mass media, and the media industry. Those actions will usually be prompted by pressures from public opinion or from industry interest groups.^[1]

Print media, public radio and television broadcasting, mobile communications all converge in the digital infrastructure. This digitalisation produces markets that still lack consistent and rigorous regulation. In instances where regulations exist, technical innovations outpace and overtake existing rules and give rise to illegal activities like copyright violations. This has to be dealt with to defend intellectual property rights (see e.g. Digital Economy Act 2010)

Media politics is the subject of studies in media research and cultural studies.

Literature

Mansell, Robin (2011). The handbook of global media and communication policy. West Sussex, United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-118-79945-1. OCLC 908635289.
Freedman, Des (2008). The politics of media policy. Cambridge, UK Malden MA: Polity. ISBN 978-0-7456-2842-4. OCLC 236184928.
Hallin, Daniel C.; Mancini, Paolo (2005). "Comparing Media Systems". In James Curran; Michael Gurevitch (eds.). Mass media and society. London New York: Hodder Arnold Distributed in the U.S.A by Oxford University Press. pp. 215–233. ISBN 978-0-340-88499-7. OCLC 60512689.
Humphreys, Peter (1996). Mass media and media policy in Western Europe. Manchester England New York New York: Manchester University Press Distributed exclusively in the USA and Canada by St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-3197-7. OCLC 33008396.