Since the mid-1980s, broadcasting in the Federal Republic of Germany has been extensively re-regulated. The traditional duopoly of the public broadcasters Ard and ZDF has been challenged by new private networks in both radio and television. In two historic judgements handed down in 1986 and 1987, the Federal Constitutional Court set out terms for a new dual order of private and public broadcasting. But how were the guidelines of the court interpreted in practice? Pluralism, Politics and the Marketplace traces the economic and political influences which shaped the emergence of a pluralistic broadcasting system in the federal republic, and examines the conflicts between public and private broadcasting, both in West Germany and in the European Community as a whole.

In this interdisciplinary study of the laws and policies associated with commercial radio and television, Thomas Streeter reverses the usual take on broadcasting and markets by showing that government regulation creates rather than intervenes in the market. Analyzing the processes by which commercial media are organized, Streeter asks how it is possible to take the practice of broadcasting—the reproduction of disembodied sounds and pictures for dissemination to vast unseen audiences—and constitute it as something that can be bought, owned, and sold. With an impressive command of broadcast history, as well as critical and cultural studies of the media, Streeter shows that liberal marketplace principles—ideas of individuality, property, public interest, and markets—have come into contradiction with themselves. Commercial broadcasting is dependent on government privileges, and Streeter provides a searching critique of the political choices of corporate liberalism that shape our landscape of cultural property and electronic intangibles.

"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." - James Curran, Goldsmiths, University of London In Media Regulation, two leading scholars of the media examine the challenges of regulation in the global mediated sphere. This book explores the way that regulation affects the relations between government, the media and communications market, civil society, citizens and consumers. Drawing on theories of governance and the public sphere, the book critically analyzes issues at the heart of today′s media, from the saturation of advertising to burdens on individuals to control their own media literacy. Peter Lunt and Sonia Livingstone incisively lay bare shifts in governance and the new role of the public sphere which implicate self-regulation, the public interest, the role of civil society and the changing risks and opportunities for citizens and consumers. It is essential reading to understand the forces that are reshaping the media landscape.

The Politics of Broadcasting (1985) examines the state of broadcasting in a variety of Western democracies from a political viewpoint, written at a time when new telecommunications and information technology revolutionised television and radio. The book describes and analyses the problems faced by politicians and broadcasters in responding to these changing technological and political environments.

This book provides guidelines, tools, and real world examples to help assess and reform the enabling environment for media development that serves public interest goals. It builds on a growing awareness of the role of media and voice in the promotion of transparent and accountable governance, in the empowerment of people to better exercise their rights and hold leaders to account; and in support of equitable development including improved livelihoods, health, and access to education. The book provides development practitioners with an overview of the key policy and regulatory issues involved in supporting freedom of information and expression and enabling independent public service media. Country examples illustrate how these norms have been institutionalized in various contexts.

A state-of-the-art account of what we know and do not know about the effects of digital technology on democracy.