Communications Policy and the State Julianne Stewart

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Communications Policy and the StateJulianne
Stewart
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Part 1

• This presentation covers discussion of the
  readings by Thompson and then Braman
• A second presentation later in this module covers
  issues raised in the Mosco readings

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Relationship to Previous Modules

• (3) Public Sphere
• provides a mechanism and/or strategy for
  discussing policy (including communication
  policy)
• (4) Communication and Information as Public Goods
• shows the need for communication channels within
  the public sphere to remain public so that policy
  (including communication policy) can be freely
  discussed)

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This module offers several different ways
of understanding and explaining the changing
relationship between the State and other
institutional actors in an environment
increasingly dominated by information and
communication technologies.
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Where This Module Fits

• Examining the Role of the State
• as it interacts with historical givens
• as it interacts with market forces and pressures
  to privatise previously public goods
• as it interacts with new communication
  technologies

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Thompson Reading 5.1

• Says that regulation and de-regulation are false
  dichotomies
• We cannot escape regulation even markets
  require regulating because they are NOT
  self-regulating organisms (although free-market
  theorists would disagree)
• Regulation theories address the relationship
  between States, economies and cultures
• Moral regulation accompanies economic regulation,
  and is intimately connected to it (WHY?)

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Braman Reading 5.2

• Four different forms of state according to Braman
• culturally-defined (nation) state
• bureaucratically-defined state
• hybrid forms
• network state

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Braman Reading 5.2 (cont)

• Talks about different conceptualisations of the
  State and how these different forms of states
  exercise power (nation, bureaucratic, hybrid
  network)
• Focuses on why the network state is a new form,
  influenced by the information and communication
  technology revolution

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Culturally-defined (Nation) State

• Exercises symbolic power over thoughts and
  perceptions
• Key Issues (examples)
• what constitutes national content? (eg New
  Zealand or US content in Australia free trade
  agreement with the USA)
• Decisions about what are the official languages
  to be used in broadcasting and on the Internet
• The rights of indigenous peoples for respect for
  cultural/national values and how these rights are
  enacted

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Bureaucratically-defined state

• Exercises structural power over behaviour,
  including decisions
• Key Issues (examples)
• the role of regulatory institutions such as the
  Australian Broadcasting Authority, Australian
  Communications Authority, Singapore Broadcasting
  Authority and similar regulating bodies in other
  countries
• privacy of the individual vs the states right of
  surveillance

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Hybrid Forms of State (mixed)

• Exercise mainly instrumental power (over the
  body)
• Key issues
• multiculturalism in broadcasting and other
  communication policy decision-making
• treatment of foreign nationals
• who are the citizens for whom public broadcasting
  services are made available?
• Indigenous communication rights

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The Network State

• Exercises transformational power over information
  and materials, eg
• Sale of Telstra transforms a public service into
  a debt-reducing asset in the market place
• Social security information is transformed from a
  welfare state service into data saleable to
  private industry (or usable in other ways)
• Singapore government enterprises engage in
  commerce alongside private competitors, thus
  transforming themselves into quasi private
  enterprises

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The Network State (cont)

• Network states share power, but with whom, and in
  whose interests?
• Key issues
• major shift in focus of decision-making and
  enactment processes involving utilisation of
  communication and information networks (who
  accesses what levels?)
• debates over intellectual property rights
• debates over police and military powers re using
  networks for surveillance
• information openness vs secrecy

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How does the Australian State formulate policy?

• Mixture of hybrid nation-(bureaucratic)state and
  network state (all four definitions)
• Uses symbolic power (social control?)
• Uses structural bureaucratic power
  (representation?)
• Uses transformational power (expertise?)
• Uses instrumental power (bureaucratic)
• Uses market ??? (Civil society, not State)