European Media Policy - Essay Example

EUROPEAN MEDIA POLICY Introduction The media consists of both print and electronic media. The print media has newspapers and magazines whereas the electronic media has radio, television and the World Wide Web. There are many further bifurcations in each of these categories because of the high amount of niche serving that everyone is doing. In the category of television, two further bifurcations can be found, such as news and entertainment. News is further sub divided into information and infotainment (information presented in an analytical way). The media has its own place in any society. It connects the whole masses to the Government or to the ones who want to sell their goods or services; it connects the public with knowledge of what is happening around the world, it gives the masses something to do in their spare time by entertaining them through the soaps and reality shows. The media industry is booming day by day and is touching new horizons. Its importance is unparalleled in this society as it serves so many needs and without the presence of media, a certain loophole will be left which can not be filled by any other form of communication.1 When it comes to a media policy, this means that there should be regulation and governance in this industry too. The media, if let loose, can have damaging effects as well. Because it is the media of a country which represents the country worldwide and can have dangerous circumstances for the country if, at any point in time, the media broadcasts or prints something which hurts the social, political and emotional sentiments of some other race, culture or country. Therefore, media has to be regulated so that it is unbiased, so that proper rules are followed, so that coverage is done in a standardized form. The European Media Policy is the media policy which regulates the media channels found in the European Union. There is a forum known as the Information Society and Media, which has an European Commissioner and a Directorate General, presently they are Viviane Reding and Fabio Colasanti respectively. The Directorate General has included the "Media" in his responsibilities since January 2005 only. Before this date, he was only responsible for the Information Society. The European Commission also maintains a Commissioner of Communication, whose job description is to maintain links and contacts with the media and have a certain level of relationship with the media. 2 The aims of the European Media Policy is that it wants to see Europe as a landscape with a strong presence and foothold of media and it wants to have an expression based on the element of media pluralism. Another aim of the European Media Policy is to stand up to such a level where it can compete with other media industries on a global and international scale. Pros of European Media Policy One of the major pros of the European Media Policy is that it is seen as a national responsibility by all. Everyone who is concerned or related with the media takes full responsibility of bringing out the best they can in providing news and entertainment plus keeping in mind that every thing has its limitations. This can be generalized to a term self-governance. The stakeholders and the owners of media can self-regulate themselves so as to decrease the need for a strict overlook of the Government and Media Bodies in this matter. The second major pro of the European Media Policy is that when it comes to the media owners and the Government, neither of them have a stronger foothold than the other in the relationship that they share. If it had been such a case where the Government would have had an upper edge in this relationship that they share and would have been easily able to influence the media without the media having any say as to how the regulation should be done, then there would have been a problem. In the case of the European media policy, the media gets affected, directly or indirectly, with situations that take place on a Government level and likewise, the Government is affected by the way the media will report what is going on in the Government. It is a two way street, with both ways very important, central and playing an equal part in the relationship they share. 3 Another pro is that the Member States of the European Union have this freedom to use the European Media Policy in accordance with what their national traditions are. Member states like Albania, Bulgaria, Romania etc can fill in the general framework which has been laid down by the Government and mould it according to their specific needs. It is not like the Government has given a very specific framework and the states are having a difficulty in bringing similarity between their national traditions and the media policy that they have to follow. Only when it comes to issues which are of an international scale then does the Government step in with a specific framework because at that point in time, the country is representing itself worldwide and it should take care of the fact that the framework is not only specific, it is representing the traditions of the whole country in unison. Another important pro, in terms of the media owners, is the acceptance and encouragement of self-regulation within the European Media Policy. It is believed by the Commission which was in office in the year 2004 that self-regulation is a better implementation that adding another layer of regulation, which can only increase the tension between the policy makers and the policy followers. Cons of European Media Policy In terms of cons, one of the major ones is the one concerned with the type of relationship that the Government and media share with each other. As it was mentioned above that there is no upper hand of any party in this relationship and that both are dependent on each other, the mistake that is often made is that they are not kept apart from each other. If the European Media Policy aims to give independence to media and freedom of speech to press, then it needs to be made sure that these two areas are kept apart. Media companies should separate their management levels in terms of these two areas and not merge the two aspects, if they want to deal with both in an efficient and effective manner. Media companies should have separate departments for economic management (the area which gets affected by what happens in the Government) and the journalistic and editorial responsibility (the area which itself affects the Government). As for the Government, separate communities should be set which should regulate how they affect the media and how the media affects them.4 Another con is the existence of red tape in the European Media Policy, which people have started criticizing. As far as the policy makers are concerned, they themselves feel that the criticism the red tape is getting is justified. The third con is that the rules which have been laid down by the European Media Policy might not be that up to date as far as the rate of progress of media is concerned. There are many rules which have gone obsolete, in the sense that the explanation of the rules stands void when compared to the stage at which media stands today. Then there is a problem of complexity. Rules and procedures are so complex that it is not easy for a media company representative, let alone a layman, to understand what is meant by the rule and how the particular procedure should be followed. They have to be simplified and written in a clear manner for comprehension to be possible. These types of rules only increase the amount of regulatory excess which is felt by the media companies. Another con which is very visible in the European Media Policy is its insistence on taking a figure head position in the lives of the masses, by telling them what they should do rather than letting them decide on their own what they want to do. This is in reference to the ban which is placed on things like tobacco and alcohol, which are trying to suggest that the Government is stopping its masses from drinking it. This move towards banning such commodities has been taken after much support from many Member States. What is a Good Policy A good policy is one which keeps into mind the interests of all its media companies, whether they are public or private. The interests and the development of the privately owned media companies should be catered to especially because the private companies are owned by the masses and if their encouragement is done, then the media industry is sure to flourish and expand at a rate which is desirable. Often it is seen that in the Government, all the privileges are given to the publicly or state owned media companies. Foe example, if we discuss a publicly owned television news channel, then exclusive broadcasting rights can be given to it, whereas the privately owned television news channels have to take feed from this public channel. The private channels are not given the right to shoot the event firsthand, for instance, a Parliament session, and present it to their audience. In this way, the Government might be decreasing the amount of quality improvement that can be brought within the media industry due to the competition which arises in terms of who gets the broadcasting rights among the privately owned channels. By exclusively providing broadcasting rights to the publicly owned channel, the media policy is eliminating the need of competition and slowing down the path towards progress. 5 A good policy is one which takes care of all the employees which are associated with the media industry, especially the ones who are into the business of news channels or newspapers and they have the job of reporting events which are risky or which could have taken their own lives away. History has it that many reporters and journalists have lost their lives while covering a story or have been averse to risky situations while they are on their job. A good media policy will make it compulsory on the media companies that they take special care of such reporters and that there is insurance done of these employees, by the company itself for times if they face an injury or compensation to their family in the case of death. Moreover, a good policy is one which regulates the broadcasting or printing of the information that every media company does. For instance, the media policy should make sure that the opinions of the analysts that are being presented in infotainment programs should be unbiased and be more analytical than criticism oriented. Analysts should be free to investigate but not free to criticize as they have no right to abuse the person concerned due to any reason whatsoever. A good media policy also regulates the type of language and visuals that are been shown or said through any media channel. Sometimes the language used can be offensive or the visuals shown can be really depressing for any human to see. Therefore, a good policy will make sure that such content is filtered before it is presented.6 Limitations of a Media Policy The limitations of a media policy are that it can undermine the progress that it being made on a private level. Usually it happens that investments are made more on the private level than on the public level and if the Government succeeds in increasing the interests of the masses in the media industry through its media policy, then it can be sure of the fact that the media industry will flourish. This is because if investment from the general masses tends to increase, it will attract the attention of big companies, groups and networks to invest in this industry and ultimately, the Government will not be the only one who will want the industry to flourish.7 Another limitation of a media policy is that it puts bans on things that it considers is dangerous to health. These commodities might have been proved to be dangerous medically but then it stops the freedom of action that is usually prevalent in a free country like the European Union. The masses should be allowed to decide for themselves whether they want to consume these commodities or not. Plus putting a ban on the advertisement of these commodities means that the amount of revenue that can be generated by allowing advertisement of the tobacco industry and the alcohol industry is an opportunity which is being missed. This also does not allow healthy competition between the players of the tobacco industry and alcohol industry as advertisement always gives a pathway to competition as to who generates more sales by advertising. Another limitation of the media policy is that it can sometimes be too inclined towards the Government and try to finish off or at least decrease the amount of freedom of speech and independence a certain media company should get. This is because public owned media companies are usually inclined towards the Government and they even try to tell the information which is important and crucial. But privately owned companies are totally for the masses and therefore, they provide complete and detailed information, keeping the masses totally informed of what is happening, with the minute to minute details. Inclination towards the Government can be really harmful as it will harm the progress which can be made if a biased position is taken by the media policy. Works Cited 1. Sukosd, Miklos. Reinventing Media: Media Policy Reform in East-Central Europe. 2003 2. Peter, Humphreys. Mass Media and Media Policy in Western Europe. 1996 3. Sarikakis, Katharine. Media and Cultural Policy in the European Union. 2007 4. Jankowitsch, Peter. European Ministerial Conference on Mass Media Policy: Proceedings. 1988 5. Sarikakis, Katharine. Powers in Media Policy: The Challenge of the European Parliament 6. Katz, Yaron. Media Policy for the 21st Century in the United States and Western Europe. 2004 7. European Institute for the Media. The European Citizen and the Media: European Media Policy: Should it exist Read More