European Media Governance

Description

Media Governance today is shifting media rules and regulations from national government policies to local, regional, national, multinational and international ones and away from exclusively governmental domains to others, such as market, professional and public interest/pressure groups. Many media-related civil society organisations are based in Brussels, operate at a European level and influence exactly the part of Media Governance that has escaped the national shackles of the member states. But which are those organizations and who do they represent? Which are the relevant EU regulations for the different media industries that they try to influence? How do they participate in the media related debates in the different EU institutions? What are their major position papers? What is the current state of affairs in the European Media Governance relevant to their industry and what are the future issues that they are trying to tackle early enough at a European level? Finally, how are their lobbying efforts coordinated with other political, professional and public interest groups? 

This book presents the work of ten of these European organizations from a variety of media sectors, as well as the relevant work of the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Consumers Association.

Sujets

• Media Studies
• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• General officer
• Screenplay
• Television
• General
• Cultural Studies
• Media

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books Ltd
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781841502205
• Langue: English

Extrait

European Media Governance: The Brussels Dimension
Edited by Georgios Terzis
European Media Governance: The Brussels Dimension
Edited by Georgios Terzis
First Published in the UK in 2008 by Intellect Books, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2008 by Intellect Books, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright 2008 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Cover Design: Gabriel Solomons Copy Editor: Holly Spradling Typesetting: Mac Style, Nafferton, E. Yorkshire
ISBN 978-1-84150-198-7/EISBN 978-1-84150-220-5
Printed and bound by Gutenberg Press, Malta.
To Despo
C ONTENTS
Foreword European Journalism Centre: 1992-2007 Giuseppe Zaffuto
Editor s Preface Georgios Terzis
Introduction Alison Harcourt
EU Institutions
European Media Governance and the Role of the European Commission Jean-Eric De Cockborne and Harald Trettenbrein
The European Union s Media Policy: The Role of the European Parliament Nikolaos Sifunakis
Broadcasting
European Broadcasting Union Jacques Briquemont
European Media Governance and the Private Radio Industry Vincent Sneed
Film
Film Directors and European Media Governance C cile Despringre
Print
European Media Governance and the Newspaper Industry Valtteri Niiranen
European Media Governance and the Magazine Industry David Mahon
Books and the European Union, Mutual Understanding? Celine D Ambrosio, Olga Martin Sancho Anne Bergman-tahon
Advertising
The Digital Revolution - What Does It Mean For Advertising? Dominic Lyle
Advertising, the Audio-visual Industry and European Media Governance Michel Gr goire
Journalism Scriptwriting
European Journalists Press Case for Media Rights for All Aidan White
Screenwriters and European Media Governance Christina Kallas
Consumers
Television Without Frontiers - Advertising Without Limits Cornelia Kutterer
Conclusions: Media Policy of the European Union - Trends and Developments Bettina Peters
Annex A Inventory of EU Measures Affecting the Media
FOREWORD

E UROPEAN J OURNALISM C ENTRE : 1992-2007
For fifteen years now, the European Journalism Centre has monitored, researched, reflected and conducted trainings on the present and future challenges facing the media in Europe. The EJC celebrates its 15th birthday at the service of the media community with this new publication: European Media Governance: The Brussels Dimension. The publication would not have been possible without the support of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture Science (OCenW), to which the EJC would like to express its gratitude for the fruitful cooperation.
I would also like to thank the EJC Executive Committee: Ove Joanson (President), Vicent Partal (Vice-President), Hugh Stephenson (Founder) and Wilfried Ruetten (Director) for their invaluable guidance and constant input to our intellectual endeavours.
A final note of appreciation goes to Professor Georgios Terzis, EJC s dedicated and knowledgeable publications editor, for his tireless efforts in the last two years and for his overall conception of this project.
Giuseppe Zaffuto Director of Programmes, European Journalism Centre (EJC)
E DITOR S P REFACE
Georgios Terzis
Associate Professor, Vesalius College-Vrije Universiteit Brussel Chair, Journalism Studies Section, European Communication Research and Education Association
Governance is the effort of human communities to try to control, direct, shape or regulate certain kinds of activities (Fukuyama and Wagner 2000: 12), while European governance according to the White Paper of the European Commission means rules, processes and behaviour that affect the way in which powers are exercised at European level, particularly as regards to openness, participation, accountability, effectiveness and coherence.
Media governance in Europe today is shifting media rules and regulations from national government policies to local, regional, national, multinational and international ones and away from exclusively governmental domains to others, such as market, professional and public interest/pressure groups (McQuail 1997 and 2005; Bardoel d Haenens 2004); or according to the same EC White Paper to civil society which includes exactly those organizations: trade unions and employers organisations; nongovernmental organisations; professional associations; charities; grass-roots organisations; organisations that involve citizens in local and municipal life with a particular contribution from churches and religious communities .
Today approximately twenty such media-related civil society organizations are based in Brussels, operate at a European level and influence exactly the part of media governance that has escaped the national shackles of the Member States. But which are those organizations and who do they represent? Which are the relevant EU regulations for the different media industries that they try to influence? How do they participate in the media related debates in the different EU institutions? What are their major position papers? Why is the current state of affairs in the European media governance relevant to their industry and what are the future issues that they are trying to tackle early enough at a European level? Finally, how are their lobbying efforts coordinated with other political, professional and public interest groups?
In this book we are presenting the work of ten of these European organizations from a variety of media sectors, as well as the relevant work of the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Consumers Association. [The remaining organizations were invited to contribute but they were unable to due to the time restrictions of this publication. We are hoping to host them in the second edition].
As an editor, I would like to thank all the contributors for the generous provision of time and energy in order to make this book a reality, as well as the Director of Programmes of the European Journalism Centre, Giuseppe Zaffuto, for trusting me with the responsibility of editing it.
References
Bardoel, J. d Haenens, L. (2004), Media responsibility and accountability: New conceptualizations and practices, Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research 29(1): 5-25.
European Commission (2001), European Governance, a white paper , Brussels, 25.7.2001, COM (2001) 428 final, p. 8 and 14, Available from: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2001/com2001_0428en01.pdf .
Fukuyama, F., Wagner C. (2000), Information and Biological Revolutions: Global Governance Challenges, RAND Corporation . Available from http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1139 .
McQuail, D. (2005), McQuail s Mass Communication Theory , Sage.
McQuail, D. (1997), Accountability of Media to Society: Principles and Means, European Journal of Communication , vol. 12, no. 4, 511-529 (1997).
I NTRODUCTION
Alison Harcourt
Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Exeter
What can be termed as European media governance comprises of both the national and European policy domains and the interaction between the two. European policy is coordinated by European countries through the membership of the European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe. This book shall overview Europe s role in media governance with particular reference to the European Union policy framework. The volume gathers together statements from European Union institutions and associations, the latter representing both industry and unions. Contributors will provide an overview of the role of their organizations in Brussels. Those representing industry provide discussion of members industry figures, position papers on European regulation and statements on recent European initiatives and the current state of affairs.
This introduction will contextualize these contributions by outlining the market status quo and the EU regulatory framework.
1. European media groups in a global market
European Union policy documents have concentrated on the importance of competitiveness of European firms in global markets. However, European groups are transforming themselves into multinational corporations. Ownership structures have changed dramatically in over the last twenty years. Since capital is global in nature, it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish companies as French , German , etc. or even as European . Although many firms were established by a single entrepreneur (e.g. Black, Burda, Dassault, Hersant, Lagard re, Maxwell, Murdoch, O Reilly) or as family firms (e.g. Agnelli, Aller, Berlusconi, Bonnier, De Benedetti, Fellner, Hersant, Holtzbrinck, Kirch, Mohn, Mondadori, Springer), most European media companies have now evolved into corporations listed on stock market exchanges. It is estimated that the French group Vivendi is 90 per cent owned by US registered shareholders, Kirch is controlled by the American businessman Haim Saban, and the British BSkyB and Italian Sky Italia are controlled by the US-based Rupert Murdoch. Even for many European companies still based at home , profits are greater abroad than they are in Europe. Hence, one has to question how European these groups actually are and whether this should matter for regulators.
Most of the largest European media companies are in fact subsidiaries of large multinational conglomerates which draw the bulk of their income from activities other than the media. Many of these companies have been around for 100 years or longer. In most European countries, investment in audio-visual broadcasting came either from existing national champions , namely, large press conglomerates, industrial groups or privatized utilities