I’m posting details for a forthcoming event about the process of media policy making which will be taking place at Goldsmiths College, London on September 23rd 2005. If you are interested in attending, please email me to register.

MEDIA POLICY-MAKING AND POWER: A SYMPOSIUM

Organised by the Unit for Journalism Research, Goldsmiths College and the Economic and Social Research Council.

Media policy is changing both in its direction and in its co-ordination. The ’shape’ of the British media was traditionally decided on by a handful of government ministers and officials and reported largely in the business pages of the press. At a time of considerable change in the global media environment, new actors and new paradigms are emerging that have increased the profile of media policy-making and shifted the balance of power between corporate and public service interests in the policy-making process.

This symposium brings together informed participants in and commentators on British media policy-making to address key questions that have arisen out of recent developments like the 2003 Communications Act and BBC Charter Review. To what extent is the policy process dominated by industry lobbyists or government voices? How open and accountable is the policy-making process? What role can the public play in influencing decision-making? Is media policy-making increasingly centralized in Downing Street or dispersed as the number of ’stakeholders’ grows? What are the principles and objectives that are guiding policy-makers today?

The symposium offers the opportunity for academics, regulators, industry members, students and the general public to debate and reflect on a process that shapes the structure and performance of the British media.

Provisional timetable
9.30 Registration

10.00-11.15 am 1) Media policy-making in perspective
Professor Michael Moran (University of Manchester, author of The British Regulatory State)
Professor Jean Seaton (University of Westminster, co-author of Power without Responsibility)
Des Freedman (Goldsmiths College, author of The Television Policies of the Labour Party) 11.30-1.00 pm 2)

The battle over the 2003 Communications Act
Bill Bush (special adviser to culture secretary Tessa Jowell)
Don Redding (Co-ordinator, Public Voice)
Lord Puttnam (chair of the Joint Committee on the Communications Bill)
Nick Toon (head of public affairs, Channel Four)

1.00-2.00 pm lunch

2.00-3.30 pm 3) Dynamics of press policy-making
David Seymour (Political editor: Daily Mirror)
Professor Eric Barendt (UCL, co-author of Media Law)
Professor James Curran (Goldsmiths College, author of Media and Power)
3.45-5.15 pm

4) An evaluation of Ofcom’s Public Service Broadcasting Review and BBC Charter Review
Robin Foster (partner, Strategy Development at Ofcom)
Tim Gardam (member of Lord Burns’ panel on BBC Charter Review)
David Levy (controller of public policy, BBC)

5.15-5.30 Closing comments Tickets (including lunch) are free but registration is essential.