Media governance: a new concept for the analysis of media policy and regulation

Abstract

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.