In each issue of our newsletter, the research round-up draws your attention to a particular topic that can resonate among PSM scholars and practitioners.
In this issue, we take a look at research on recent shifts in media policy at the European level. With the 2018 revision of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD), the 2022 Digital Services Act (DSA), the 2022 Digital Markets Act (DMA), and, most recently, the 2024 European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), media issues seem to have gained prominence in EU politics. At the same time, recurrent attempts by governments to capture the media in member states such as Slovakia (see our interview with Peter Hanák) have once again raised questions about the enforceability of EU regulation.
Heritiana Ranaivoson, Sally Broughton Micova and Tim Raats (Eds.) |
Routledge, 2023
European Audiovisual Policy in Transition
This edited volume presents both a comprehensive overview and a critical analysis of the shifts brought about by the 2018 revision of the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD), which has been considered as a key starting point for a more decisive EU stance on media issues, particularly vis-à-vis platform power. Its 14 chapters cover issues such as the AVMSD’s approach to media ownership transparency and regulatory independence, its implications for video-sharing platforms and signal integrity, as well as specific regulatory tools such as “Netflix taxes” and content quotas. “European Audiovisual Policy in Transition” thus provides an invaluable insight into the key developments set out in the AVMSD reform and the political processes that brought it about.
Read the book here.
Christina Holtz-Bacha | European Journal of Communication, 2023
Freedom of the media, pluralism, and transparency. European media policy on new paths?
This article chronicles how, since the 2010s, the EU has begun to complement its traditional competition law-driven, economic approach to media issues with initiatives aimed at strengthening media pluralism and emphasizing the role of the media in democratic societies. Tracing the EU’s impotence in the face of Hungary’s 2011 controversial media law, Holtz-Bacha outlines the subsequent reorientation of EU media policy, decisively pushed by the European Parliament. The article – published before the final adoption of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), but discussing its draft – sets out the EU Commission’s attempts to test the limits of its legal scope in the face of media freedom violations in member states. It concludes that Brussels’ room for intervention in media issues has so far remained rather limited.
Read the full article here.
Marius Dragomir, Marta Rodríguez Castro and Minna Aslama Horowitz |
Journalism and Media, 2024
Public Service Media and Platformization: What Role Does EU Regulation Play?
Assessing the impact of the Digital Services Act (DSA), the Digital Markets Act (DMA), and the 2024 European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) in reducing the risks for PSM in the face of increasing platform power, the authors conclude that the three acts do not adequately respond to current challenges for PSM funding and independence. Based on a qualitative thematic analysis, the article provides a concise overview of how these three pieces of legislation, as well as the 1997 Amsterdam Protocol, have affected or, in the case of the newly adopted EMFA, will likely affect PSM. It also considers how platformization challenges PSM values and how the EU’s regulatory responses may mitigate these threats. With regard to the EMFA, the authors argue that despite its guarantees of PSM independence, these provisions will have limited impact due to the autonomy in PSM matters granted to EU member states in the Amsterdam Protocol.
Read the full paper here.
International Press Institute & Media and Journalism Research Center | 2024
Measuring media capture in the EU: The Media Capture Monitoring Report project
The International Press Institute (IPI) and the Media and Journalism Research Center have recently launched a new series of annual reports that will analyze the extent of media capture in EU member states and measure their compliance with the standards of media regulation established by the EMFA. The Media Capture Monitoring Report (MCMR) includes an assessment of the editorial and functional independence of PSM organizations and of the autonomy of national media regulators. The first reports on Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Greece have just been published, with three additional country reports expected to follow shortly.
Read more about the project here.