Media Policy for the 21st Century in the United States and Western Europe

This book examines the changing course of media policy and markets by exploring the effects of global developments that have become dominant in the media and telecommunications sectors and by focusing on the social, cultural, technological, political, and commercial implications that dominate the new structure of media policy as they have come into existence at the global level, making an impact on local policies in each country. The first part of the book examines the course of development of media policy. Chapter One covers the three-stage development course of media policy, and the role of governments, globalization of media policy, and technologies of the 21st century are examined in Chapters Two through Four. T he second part of the book examines the impact of global media policy on local policies and markets, a process that leads to a transformation from cultural perceptions to commercialization and globalization. Chapter Five examines the attempts to create the information society, which stands at the heart of global policy. Chapter Six explores of the globalization of media markets, while commercialization in the digital age is discussed in Chapter Seven. Chapter Eight makes the argument that the new structure of media policy dominates developments at the global level and attempts to forecast the future structure of media policy for the 21st century, competition as an alternative to regulation, changes in local markets, and the technologies of the future.