Media Policy and Regulation in the Public Interest: Looking Ahead

Abstract

In identifying and assessing the academic literature on public interest in media and communications, the previous two chapters showed that communications policies are generally guided by and legitimized in the name of the ‘public interest’. The literature review attempted to outline the terms in which the field is defined, but it was far from comprehensive in terms of geographical reach, for it was limited to English-language publications with examples mainly drawn from the USA, the UK and the mainland European terrain. The public interest philosophy in the Western world is generally based on freedom of communication (expression and opinion), universal access to information and knowledge (inclusiveness), diversity (plurality of ownership and content diversity), and accountability. Until three decades ago or so the means to promote these public interest goals were state intervention in the media market (but not state control, as was — and still is, to varying degrees — the case in most Eastern European countries), although lately the politics of neoliberalism have led to the ‘marketization’ of the public interest notion.KeywordsEuropean UnionPublic InterestMedia PolicyCompetition PolicyCompetition AuthorityThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.