Media Regulation : Governance and the Interests of Citizens and Consumers

In Media Regulation, two leading scholars of the media examine the challenges of regulation in the global mediated sphere. This book explores the way that regulation affects the relations between government, the media and communications market, civil society, citizens and consumers. Drawing on theories of governance and the public sphere, the book critically analyzes issues at the heart of today's media, from the saturation of advertising to burdens on individuals to control their own media literacy. Lunt and Livingstone incisively lay bare shifts in governance and the new role of the public sphere which implicate self-regulation, the public interest, the role of civil society and the changing risks and opportunities for citizens and consumers. It is essential reading to understand the forces that are reshaping the media landscape.

Peter Lunt is Professor of Media and Communication at the University of Leicester. His research interests include audience research, popular television, the public understanding of media regulation and media and social theory. He is currently working on a project on media, history and memory and on the changing understanding of public service broadcasting. He is the author of five books including Talk on Television (with Sonia Livingstone, Routledge, 1994) and Stanley Milgram (Palgrave, 2010) and many academic papers and chapters. Sonia Livingstone is Professor of Social Psychology and Head of the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research examines children, young people and the internet; social and family contexts and uses of ICT; media and digital literacies; the mediated public sphere; audience reception for diverse television genres; internet use and policy; public understanding of communications regulation; and research methods in media and communications. She is author or editor of fourteen books and many academic articles and chapters. Recent books include Young People and New Media (Sage, 2002), Audiences and Publics (edited, Intellect, 2005), The Handbook of New Media (edited, with Leah Lievrouw, Sage, 2006), Harm and Offence in Media Content (with Andrea Millwood Hargrave, Intellect, 2006), Media Consumption and Public Engagement (with Nick Couldry and Tim Markham, Palgrave, 2007), The International Handbook of Children, Media and Culture (edited, with Kirsten Drotner, Sage, 2008), Kids Online (edited, with Leslie Haddon, Policy, 2009), and Children and the Internet (2009, Polity). Sonia Livingstone directs a 25-country network, EU Kids Online, for the EC's Safer Internet Programme. She serves on the Executive Board of the UK's Council for Child Internet Safety, and has, at various times, served on the Department of Education's Ministerial Taskforce for Home Access to Technology for Children, Ofcom's Media Literacy Research Forum, the Voice of the Listener and Viewer, and the Internet Watch Foundation. She was President of the International Communication Association (2007-8).