Media Freedom and Regulation
Media ownership rules in the UK are intended to both ensure plurality and provide freedom to companies to expand, innovate and invest. Plurality is vital in a democracy as it ensures that consumers have access to a diverse range of sources of news, information and opinion. At the same time, allowing companies to have a certain level of freedom increases competition and thus this freedom provides a basis for delivering higher quality programs, greater creativity and more risk-taking. However there is debate on the level of freedom permitted to a company.
Ralph Miliband authored the book ‘The State in Capitalist Society’ in 1973, regarding media ownership he argued that, “The rights of ownership... Confers the right of making propaganda, and where that right is exercised, it most likely to be exercised in the service of strongly conservative prejudice either by positive assertion or by the exclusion of such matters as owners may find it undesirable to punish” (Miliband:1973 ). The concern of concentrated media ownership and the effects these monopolies have on public opinion, is central to the argument regarding regulating media ownership in the UK.
The Guardian News paper regarding current media ownership rules has written that, “Media power refers to the economic, political and cultural impact of organisations that deal in information, symbols and narratives. It resides both inside the media but is increasingly an essential property of other groups who want to get their voices heard... ongoing communications review provide a real opportunity to replace one form of media power – concentrated, unaccountable, privileged – with another form that holds elites to account, offers more than a token range of "legitimate" views on urgent matters of the day and represents British society back to itself. This will require a series of reforms to ownership structures and self-regulatory practices that are clearly not currently operating in the public interest.” ( Freedman
Ralph Miliband authored the book ‘The State in Capitalist Society’ in 1973, regarding media ownership he argued that, “The rights of ownership... Confers the right of making propaganda, and where that right is exercised, it most likely to be exercised in the service of strongly conservative prejudice either by positive assertion or by the exclusion of such matters as owners may find it undesirable to punish” (Miliband:1973 ). The concern of concentrated media ownership and the effects these monopolies have on public opinion, is central to the argument regarding regulating media ownership in the UK.
The Guardian News paper regarding current media ownership rules has written that, “Media power refers to the economic, political and cultural impact of organisations that deal in information, symbols and narratives. It resides both inside the media but is increasingly an essential property of other groups who want to get their voices heard... ongoing communications review provide a real opportunity to replace one form of media power – concentrated, unaccountable, privileged – with another form that holds elites to account, offers more than a token range of "legitimate" views on urgent matters of the day and represents British society back to itself. This will require a series of reforms to ownership structures and self-regulatory practices that are clearly not currently operating in the public interest.” ( Freedman