The Digital Public Sphere
Challenges for Media Policy
Until recently, media policy was thought of as national, media-specific, and as part of the cultural domain. All is changing in a digital public sphere: first, by the processes of globalization in a broad sense; second, by a blurring of borders between media, which can be summed up as convergence; and third, by a more far-reaching commercialisation of the media. The transformation triggered by these developments are ongoing and have been so for quite a few years. Thus, it is time to take stock. The different contributions in this book set out to do that.
With basis in the idea that media policy is fundamentally about regulating the public sphere in accordance with central democratic ideals, the book covers a wide range of issues: Transnational online television distribution; the trouble with building and opening digital audiovisual archives; the impact of recent EU regulations on global conglomerates as well as national public service broadcasters; the debate on net neutrality; the idea of the participating public in policy-making; the regulation of freedom of speech on the internet; as well as the impact of legal globalization on media policy itself.
Content
Preface
Introduction. The Digital Public Sphere. Challenges for Media Policy
Hallvard Moe, Jostein Gripsrud
Part I. A Perspective
Eclipse of ”the Public”. From the Public to (transnational) Public Sphere. Conceptual Shifts in the Twentieth Century
Slavko Splichal
Part II. Changes
Global Copyright Regulation and the Prospects of European Public Sphere. The Case of TVkaista
Hannu Nieminen
Providing Cultural Resources. On Turning Audiovisual Archives into a Public Domain
Karl Knapskog
News Corporation's MySpace.com and the Digital Challenges to Audiovisual Regulations
Ole J. Mjøs
Television in Cyberspace. The Net Neutrality Tussle in Norway
Tanja Storsul
Part III. Fundamentals
Notions of the Public in Public Service Broadcasting Policy for the Digital Era
Hallvard Moe
What if Competition Policy Assists the Transfer from Public Service Broadcasting to Public Service Media? An analysis of EU State aid Control and its Relevance for Public Broadcasting
Karen Donders, Caroline Pauwels
Tools for Democracy or for Surveillance? Reflections on the Rule of Law on the Internet
Helge Rønning
Legal Globalization and the Public Sphere
Sandra Braman
The Authors
Index