Media Policy and Globalization - Blogs Unpad

174 MEDIA POLICY AND GLOBALIZATION
Claims for fair redistribution, recognition and representation have
been present within the very heart of Western capitalism, countries in
the EU and the social margins of North America. The questions most
posed – and not always heard – revolve around the quest for cultural space
and recognition of difference, equity and social justice, as found (or not)
in the policies regulating the political economy of cultural industries and,
in particular, broadcasting. Our discussion of the public service model of
regulation in the context of the EU and Canada showed that pressures of
global market integration together with pressures exercised by national
capital are diminishing the capacity of national PSBs to serve public interest
objectives, just as a broader constituency of publics make claims
on these state institutions. The case of broadcasting policy-makes clear
the widening gap in the post-Fordist context between national interest
and public interest. The transnational reach and regional and translocal
appeal of broadcast media require new sets of questions about the
relationship between state institutions and public interest. The shifting
discourse of public interest in the case of broadcasting policy in the EU
is not simply a story of the growing influence of private capital over state
bodies, but also the reality of redistributive intervention at the supranational
level, sometimes failing to gain national attention and legitimacy,
often being absent from international negotiations about the future of
communication. Our discussion shows that in the cases where public representation
becomes a recognized part of the institutional arrangement of
transnational and supranational relations (as in the form of the European
Parliament) the inclusion of a public interest focused agenda is possible.
This political inclusion should be understood as a necessary element of
democratic deliberation at a supranational level. It should not be considered
though as the ultimate, adequate and sufficient, form of citizen
involvement, but rather as one of the additional spaces where civil society
can put forth claims for redistributive justice and recognition of agency.
Chapters 4 and 6 both explore the involvement of the ‘public’ in shaping
communication policy agendas: in the EU case, the representational character
of the European Parliament lends the EU communication policies
legitimacy. In the global arena, as we see in the case of the WSIS, the inclusion
of civil society fulfils this function. The quality of this involvement –
both in terms of institutionalized political representation and in terms of
inclusion of a loose organization of civil society actors in the process of
policy-making – has been studied only recently. More empirical research
is needed to provide sets of longitudinal data and the qualitative information
needed to assess and evaluate the conditions under which framing,
representing and advocating policy change corresponds to fluctuations
of power within the institutional framework of regional constellations of