Mike Varney

Media regulation, public interest and the law

The regulation of the media has become an important and integral part in understanding the new global developments in this area. Technological convergence and corporate conglomeration have resulted in the media facing fundamental challenges, especially from the regulators. In particular, the public service ethos traditionally associated with British Broadcasting is under attack from market values. The commercialization and privatization of communication threatens the role of the media in a modern democracy. This book defines signposts for effective regulation of the media, especially from the perspective of citizenship, and addresses the key issues requiring attention.

Chapter 12 Devolution and European Representation in the United Kingdom

All traditional views of the British constitution, the most famous being those of Dicey or Bagehot, noted that the sovereign power of the UK had only one locus – the Westminster Parliament. Parliament was deemed to be sovereign, and the locus of executive power was located in the largest party in Parliament, which formed the executive. From a legal perspective, this traditional constitutional orthodoxy remains in place even today – devolution of power to Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales was achieved via an Act of the Westminster Parliament, and from a legal perspective, the Westminster Parliament would be free to take away the powers granted to the devolved governments via another Act should it so wish. This situation is a result of the clear position in UK constitutional law that one Parliament is not in a position to bind its successors. It is important to note that, while the constitutional position grants the Westminster Parliament a power to repeal and remove the regional government which exists in the UK in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and London, it is most unlikely that such a move would be politically feasible.

Regulating the Revolution

INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW Our view of the world is arguably influenced more by the media than our personal experience. We rely to a large extent on both the broadcast and printed media as communicators of politics, of culture and of ‘information’, and, as such, the media exercise great power in our lives. Though both the ‘popular’ and ‘quality’ press continue to exert influence, increasingly the broadcast media of radio and especially television have come to the fore. As long ago as 1967, it could be seen that ‘television can be shown to stand out among mass media in its influence on our lives’ (Blumler and Madge 1967: 5) while thirty years later television was said to have become ‘the defining medium of the age’ (Herman and McChesney 1997: 2). While technological and commercial developments continue to change our viewing habits, there is little doubt that television viewing remains the central media experience across the globe. There is a real sense in which some combination of ‘reality TV’ and live news feeds has truly come to represent reality for many viewers. With this in mind, it is both inevitable and proper that the focus of a study of media regulation should be pre-eminently on television, though, as will become apparent, even television exists in an increasingly multimedia and cross-media environment.