Dr Damian Tambini

This course is available on the MSc in Marketing, MSc in Media and Communications, MSc in Media and Communications (Media and Communications Governance) and MSc in Politics and Communication. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course will be particularly beneficial to students with some background knowledge of media policy, regulation and governance. You are advised to consult the course teacher if you have not taken MC424, or if you do not have relevant professional experience.

This course is controlled access, meaning that there is a limit to the number of students who can be accepted.

No formal pre-requisite, but preparation for the course could include seeking additional reading in discussion with the course convenor, or auditing MC424 course materials and lectures from Moodle.

This course examines live issues in internet, broadcasting, press and telecommunications policy with a focus on current debates and an innovative format including practical exercises in policy engagement and guest speakers who are active in media policy. The aim will be to develop a practical approach to current debates at the same time referring to the longer term normative and theoretical background to intervention in this sector. After the first session, discussion will focus on a current issue each week, and the reading contains items relating to that issue. There may be some changes to the order of the sessions depending on availability of guest speakers, and supplementary readings may be advised during seminars or by email. Students will be encouraged to debate current policy issues including those that regulators and the government are currently consulting on, and develop a critical understanding of policy intervention, the policy process and strategy.

This course is delivered through a combination of lectures and seminars totalling a minimum of 30 hours across Lent Term. This course includes a reading week in Week 6 of term.

All students are expected to complete advanced reading, prepare seminar presentations and submit one essay of 1,500 words.

A reading list will be provided for each topic. General works relevant to the course include:

• Baker, C.E. (2006). Democracy at a crossroads: Why ownership matters. In Media concentration and democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 5-53.
• Gangadharan, S. P. (2013). Toward a deliberative standard: Rethinking participation in policymaking. Communication, Culture & Critique, 6(1), 1-19.
• Mansell, R. & Raboy, M. (Eds.) (2011). The handbook of global media and communication policy. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Moore, M. and Tambini, D. (Eds). (2018). Digital Dominance: The Power of Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
• Papathanassopoulos, S., & Negrine, R. M. (2011). Europeanizing the Media of Europe. In European media: Structures, policies and identity (pp. 63–83). Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Pasquale, F., & Citron, D.K. (2014). Promoting innovation while preventing discrimination: Policy goals for the scored society. Washington Law Review, 89(4), 1413-1424.
• Raymond, M., & DeNardis, L. (2015, November). Multistakeholderism: anatomy of an inchoate global institution. International Theory, 7(3), 572-616.
• Shtern, J., Landry, N., & Raboy, M. (2012). The least imperfect form of global governance yet? Multi-stakeholder governance of communication. In D. Frau-Meigs (Ed.), From NWICO to WSIS 30 years of communication geopolitics: actors and flows, structures and divides (pp. 187–198). Bristol, UK: Intellect Books.
• Tambini, D. (2015). Five theses on public media and digitalization: From a 56-country study. International Journal of Communication, 5, 1400-1424.
• Tambini, D. (2021). Media Freedom. Cambridge, Polity.
• van Schewick, B. (2015). Network neutrality and quality of service: What a non-discrimination rule should look like. Stanford Law Review, 67(1), 1–26.
• Wu, Tim. The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Guilded Age. Columbia Global Reports, New York, 2018.
• Journals such as Media, Culture, and Society, New Media and Society, Journal of Digital Media and Policy, , Telecommunications Policy, and  Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance.
• The European Information Society portal http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/index_en.htm as well as the websites of OECD, OfCOM, the FCC and other communications regulators see BEREC https://berec.europa.eu/

Essay (100%, 3500 words) in the ST.