Page 21 - Communication Theory and Research

McQuail(EJC)-3281-01.qxd 8/16/2005 11:58 AM Page 10

10 Communication Theory & Research
to regulation of public broadcasting and rather marginal and ineffective efforts at
limiting press concentration. In the new era, communication policy topics multi-
plied to cover: the regulation of private satellite and cable television; many matters
of cross-border transmission; rules for ownership and cross-ownership; new copy-
right issues; regulation of privatized telecommunications; boundaries of opera-
tion between the various competing electronic media; rules if any, for the Internet;
cultural issues arising from transnationalization; varied plans to stimulate coher-
ent technological change, for instance in relation to digital television; issues arising
from the convergence of modes of media transmission and; harmonization of the
expanding number of regulatory bodies.
Not least important has been the public demand for governments to respond
to some traditional problems associated with new media, especially where they
concern the welfare of young people in particular and moral standards in gen-
eral. The expansion of electronic media has far outpaced the capacity of existing
regulatory regimes to deal with questions of potential social or individual harm.
The somewhat dormant issue of public service broadcasting has also come back
into play, especially because of renewed assaults on its legitimacy, problems of
public funding and a general sense that its role in the contemporary world is not
always clear. In any case all this has provided the stuff of much conflict and
debate and also new and varied thinking and research.

Political communication

The US tradition of election research was initially transported to Europe and the
basic model still serves some of the same purposes, especially where it comes to
estimating the effect of one or other influence on a campaign outcome and test-
ing certain widely applicable hypotheses, such as those of agenda-setting and
framing. The correspondence of European and American research was promoted
by the apparent similarity of campaigning trends (more professionalization,
political marketing, etc.) and also of media behaviour in relation to politics
(negativity, focus on conflict and personality, neglect of fundamental issues,
etc.). Over time, European electoral behaviour and attitudes to politics seemed
to be converging on an assumed American model (lower turnout and activism,
more cynical attitudes).
Even so, there have been differences in the focus of theory and research that
can be attributed to features of European politics, especially the greater promi-
nence of political parties and partisanship, the key role of regulated broadcast-
ing in campaigning and the greater politicization of private media, especially the
newspaper press. These features allow comparisons to be made between the
content and maybe effect of ‘neutral’ broadcasting and partisan press, and
between the various partisan elements of the media system. The typically more
concentrated European election campaigns and the limited number of major
broadcast channels (in some countries) allow more scope for panel studies and
experiments about effects. Comparative research in political communication has
been fruitful, despite the ‘local’ nature of each election event; and the institution