Media Policy and Globalization - Blogs Unpad

BROADCASTING POLICY 109
than others, such as the Director General (DG) responsible for
budgets, competition and telecommunications. It is also of interest
that institutional arrangements in the EU ‘coincide’ with particular
dominant ideas about the organization of the political economy of
the union, whereby, weak (non-central in significance) committees
such as the Committee on Culture, deal with ‘soft’ policies while
more powerful actors, such as the DG for telecoms or competition,
enjoy more weight in its jurisdiction. Here, the very raison d’être of
the EU is reflected in the segregation of constituencies.
6. For a detailed discussion on the complex process that led to the
Amsterdam protocol see Sarikakis 2004c.
7. Tom Streeter (1996) offers a nuanced and historical account of
the rise of commercial and public broadcasting policy in the US,
focusing on the limits and possibilities of the discourse of corporate
liberalism. For more on the state of US public broadcasting after
the 1996 reforms: see McChesney 1999; and Aufderheide 2000. For
an activist perspective see: http://www.cipbonline.org/
8. As Young (2000) discusses the document Instant World (1971) was
one of the first to address the idea of convergence, followed from
1983 onwards by a new national broadcasting policy that effectively
furthered the project of liberalization of the Canadian broadcasting
landscape (Raboy 1990).
9. One of the authors (KS) would like to thank one of the academic
consultants of the report, Marc Raboy, for offering his invaluable
comments about the state of broadcasting policy in Canada and
time for discussing them during KS’s research leave in Montreal in
winter 2004. Thanks also go to Mr Francis Scarpaleggia, Member of
Parliament Lac St. Louis, Quebec, for making the report available
in the speediest of times.
10. For a detailed account of the politics of cultural exception and the
position of the European Parliament see Sarikakis 2004c.
11. Notable exceptions here are Bollywood and the Chinese film
industry. Whether these strong film markets are able to or interested
in supporting alternative (non-mainstream) film production is a
question pointing to the availability of a number of structural and
cultural factors, such as access to and involvement in education,
funding, skills, distribution etc.
12. Claims for recognition are made by women, aboriginal groups and
‘visible’ minority immigrant groups in Canada. In Europe, similarly
claims around citizenship, language, sexual equality and national
identity are reflected in some of the positions of the European
Parliament.