Media Governance: A New Concept for the Analysis of Media Policy and Regulation

Media governance has been attracting growing interest among communication scholars. However, there is uncertainty as to what exactly governance is. This article aims at clarification. One definition of media governance is developed that captures the entirety of rules that aim to organize media systems. However, media governance is characterized as a new concept suited for the analysis of media policy and regulation. This concept is argued to be not only of heuristic value by offering an integrated view on rules in the media sector but also adaptive to various theoretical approaches. In particular, the article shows the merits of connecting media governance to new sociological institutionalism and concludes by emphasizing the potential of a theoretically grounded concept of media governance.

[1]  John Braithwaite,et al.  Responsive Regulation: Transcending the Deregulation Debate , 1992 .

[2]  A. Héritier,et al.  New Modes of Governance in Europe: Policy Making without Legislating? IHS Political Science Series: 2002, No. 81 , 2002 .

[3]  Christopher T. Marsden,et al.  Codifying Cyberspace: Communications Self-Regulation in the Age of Internet Convergence , 2006 .

[4]  Y. Papadopoulos.  Cooperative forms of governance: Problems of democratic accountability in complex environments , 2003 .

[5]  Frans van Waarden,et al.  ‘Governance’ as a bridge between disciplines: Cross-disciplinary inspiration regarding shifts in governance and problems of governability, accountability and legitimacy , 2004 .

[6]  J. Goodstein.  Institutional Pressures and Strategic Responsiveness: Employer Involvement in Work-Family Issues , 1994 .

[7]  Mark C. Suchman,et al.  Legal Rational Myths: The New Institutionalism and the Law and Society Tradition , 1996, Law & Social Inquiry.

[8]  Gerda Falkner,et al.  Modes of governance: towards a conceptual clarification , 2007 .

[9]  K. Nordenstreng,et al.  Towards Democratic Media Governance , 2008 .

[10]  Mike Feintuck,et al.  Media Regulation, Public Interest and the Law , 2006 .

[11]  Pamela S. Tolbert,et al.  Institutionalization and Structuration: Studying the Links between Action and Institution , 1997 .

[12]  W. Powell.  Fields of Practice: Connections between Law and Organizations , 1996, Law & Social Inquiry.

[13]  G. Majone.  Regulation and its modes , 2002 .

[14]  B. Peters,et al.  Governance without government? Rethinking public administration , 1998 .

[15]  E. Fama,et al.  Separation of Ownership and Control , 1983, The Journal of Law and Economics.

[16]  M. Puppis.  National Media Regulation in the Era of Free Trade , 2008 .

[17]  D. Freedman.  The politics of media policy , 2008 .

[18]  C. Oliver.  STRATEGIC RESPONSES TO INSTITUTIONAL PROCESSES , 1991 .

[19]  Gerald R. Salancik,et al.  Organizational Discretion in Responding to Institutional Practices: Hospitals and Cesarean Births , 1996 .

[20]  Joseph V. Rees,et al.  Industry Self‐Regulation: An Institutional Perspective , 1997 .

[21]  Mark Bevir,et al.  Key Concepts in Governance , 2008 .

[22]  G. Schuppert.  Governance-forschung : Vergewisserung über stand und entwicklungslinien , 2005 .

[23]  W. Scott,et al.  Institutions and Organizations. , 1995 .

[24]  Julia Black,et al.  Critical reflections on regulation , 2002 .

[25]  B. Kohler-Koch.  Catching up with change: The transformation of governance in the European Union , 1996 .

[26]  J. Black.  Decentring Regulation: Understanding the Role of Regulation and Self-Regulation in a ‘Post-Regulatory’ World , 2001 .

[27]  M. Latzer,et al.  Selbst- und Ko-Regulierung im Mediamatiksektor , 2002 .

[28]  R. Mayntz.  Governance im modernen Staat , 2004 .

[29]  J. Kooiman,et al.  Governing as Governance , 2003 .

[30]  M. Cave,et al.  Understanding Regulation: Theory, Strategy, and Practice , 1999 .

[31]  James N. Rosenau,et al.  Governance without Government: Order and Change in World Politics , 1992 .

[32]  Jo Bardoel,et al.  Media Meet the Citizen , 2004 .

[33]  Julia Black,et al.  Constitutionalising Self‐Regulation , 1996 .

[34]  D. McQuail.  McQuail's Mass Communication Theory , 2000 .

[35]  R. Rhodes,et al.  The New Governance: Governing without Government , 1996 .

[36]  Otfried Jarren,et al.  Rundfunkregulierung. Leitbilder, Modelle und Erfahrungen im internationalen Vergleich. Eine sozial- , 2002 .

[37]  Arthur Benz,et al.  Governance — Modebegriff oder nützliches sozialwissenschaftliches Konzept? , 2004 .

[38]  W. Schulz,et al.  Regulated Self-Regulation as a Form of Modern Government: An Analysis of Case Studies from Media and Telecommunications Law , 2004 .

[39]  M. Künzler.  The state as a key success factor for Self-Regulation? Empirical evidence in brief , 2007 .

[40]  J. Rosenau.  Governance Without Government: Governance, order, and change in world politics , 1992 .

[41]  Mark C. Suchman,et al.  The Legal Environments of Organizations , 1997 .

[42]  P. Hall,et al.  Political Science and the Three New Institutionalisms , 1996 .

[43]  B. Peters,et al.  Governance, Politics and the State , 2000 .