Policy, regulation and ownership

This chapter on policy, regulation and ownership introduces students to the ‘policy perspective’ in media and communication studies, briefly outlining political economy, cultural policy studies, and right-of-centre approaches to policy analysis and advocacy. It then considers some basic principles operating in Australian media policy and regulation, covering print, broadcasting, arts and film and online. These include direct regulation, self-regulation, co-regulation and deregulation as well as the distinction between government action directed at ‘input’ (subsidisation of production) or ‘output’ (regulation to encourage and manage distribution and exhibition) activity. Having laid out structural principles of Australian media and communications policy and regulation, the chapter then looks at how they work in practice by selecting two major policy areas which have continued to be major foci during both Coalition and Labor governments in the last decade. These enduringly contentious issues are media ownership, central to the information side of the media, and Australian content, central to the entertainment side.