Tides in Communication Politics? About Shifting Involvements and Technologies of Freedom and the Relevance of Albert Hirschman and Ithiel de Sola Pool for Today’s Communication Studies

Abstract

For many decades, most western countries have established separate regulatory regimes for the press, broadcasting and telecommunications sectors. Ithiel de Sola Pool (1983, 1990) has conceptualized the differences between the three regimes in the following way. Notwithstanding the fact that these sectors are all now in the process of being merged into one ICT polity, the underlying principles and mechanisms as identified by de Sola Pool (1983) more than 20 years ago are still dominant today. The first governance mode is the private ‘economic control’ regime of the information industry (computing and publishing): a market-based form, aimed at securing economic and political pluralism, free from government intervention, and promoting competition and new entry. Public control in print is minimized by a constitutional freedom of expression and an open market for ideas and (information) services and products. Although in some countries there are or were restrictions on multimedia ownership (curtailing market dominance of particular players active in several media markets), the publishing and information industry is characterized by a competitive market generally free of government regulation The second regulatory regime is the semi-public ‘content-based’ governance mode of the broadcasting sector: an overarching public framework, wherein licences are given to public and private broadcasters on the basis of specific content requirements regarding information and entertainment (the socalled ‘must-carry-rules’). In the broadcasting domain, spectrum shortage and persistent sociocultural norms with regards to social representation, information provision, advertising and so forth, have necessitated governments to intervene through a licence-based system. Governments grant franchises to public or private owners of broadcasting facilities to provide point-to-multipoint services; the system is financed by licence fees and/or advertising. While in the GAZETTE: THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR COMMUNICATION STUDIES