Media Governance – New ways to analyze new ways to regulate

Abstract

Governance enjoys great popularity among researchers and practitioners alike. Its quality as a catch-all-word however comes at the cost of clarity. This introductory presentation conceptualizes media governance as both a change in government and a scientific perspective. On the one hand, media governance describes changing polities, politics and policies: Governance stands for new ways to regulate the media. On the other hand, media governance is a scientific perspective: Governance stands for new ways of viewing media policy and regulation. Here it is useful to distinguish between empirical and normative concepts. Very often, however, normative assumptions remain unexpressed. For instance the governance perspective is usually based on the functionalist assumption that governance is in the public interest. Nevertheless, media governance offers scholars some advantages. Governance can not only act as a bridge between disciplines but it is a new way to analyze new ways of media regulation as well.