Who looks after the citizen interest in media and
communications?
Sonia Livingstone
A starting point
Questions:
What do citizens need and deserve from the media?
Is the public’s relation to media (just) a matter of consumption?
A distinct citizen interest requiring particular media forms/contents?
Who does, and who should, represent this interest?
Basis:
Public Understanding of Regimes of Risk Regulation (ongoing, ESRC ‘SCARR’, with Peter Lunt, Brunel University)
Media Consumption and the Future of Public Connection (just completed, ESRC ‘Cultures of Consumption’, with Nick Couldry, Goldsmiths College)
Changing regimes of regulation
Today our viewers and listeners are far more empowered. Digital television, the internet and increasingly broadband is putting more choice in the hands of the user. As a regulator, we will reflect that, welcome and encourage it. There can no longer be a place for a regulator … determining what people ‘ought’ to have (Carter, Ofcom CEO)
Ofcom exists to further the interests of citizen-consumers through a regulatory regime which, where appropriate, encourages competition
A debate in Parliament
Draft Communications Bill (May 2002)
Part 1: Functions of Ofcom – Clause 3
3(1) (a) to further the interests of the persons who are customers for the services and facilities in relation to which Ofcom have functions
Joint Select Committee (July 2002)
Ofcom should have two principal duties – to further the interests of
citizens and of consumers
DTI/DCMS note on terminology
Consumer interest Citizen interestEconomic focus Cultural focusNetworks and services ContentIndividuals CommunityConsumer Panel Content Board(Legacy – Oftel) (Legacy – ITC, BSC)
The Communications Bill (Nov 2002)
Clause 3 (General duties of Ofcom):
(a) to further the interests of consumers in relevant markets, where appropriate by promoting competition
The Lords’ debate (June 2003)
The Communications Act (July 2003)
Clause 3:
3(1) It shall be the principal duty of Ofcom, in carrying out their functions;(a) to further the interests of citizens in relation to communications matters; and(b) to further the interests of consumers in relevant markets, where appropriate by promoting competition.
My Lords, I do not wish to quibble with the Minister over words. However, the word "citizen" can define both the individual and the collective—whereas the phrase "community as a whole" could simply be a majority of the collective. They are quite different, both in law and as far as concerns Parliament. (Puttnam)
The citizen-consumerOfcom is displeased, and so reframes the Act
Citizens ‘n’ consumers as two sides of the same coin
Sensible resolution, or the consumer dominates, marginalising the citizen interest?
You may well have noticed that the careful balance established in the Communications Bill between the duties to citizens and those to consumers has been upset by a recent House of Lords amendment … that requires Ofcom to give paramountcy to the citizen in all matters … This late change… seems to us to be unfortunate. (Lord Currie)
We are all of us both citizens and consumers…To attempt to separate them or rank them would be both artificial and wrong (Carter)
If it wasn’t in the Act, the citizen-consumer language… we might decide that it wasn’t terribly useful (Meek)
Citizens vs. consumers
Consumer rationale Citizen rationale
Wants NeedsIndividual level Social levelPrivate benefits Public/social benefitsLanguage of choice Language of rights (inclusion)Short-term focus Long-term focusRegulate against detriment Regulate for public interestPlan to roll back regulation Regulation required to correct market failure
At the very heart of Ofcom is the duality of the citizen and the consumer (Richards)
This is more than a matter of semantics (Lord Puttnam)
Representing the citizen
A stakeholder approach to regulation
Relevant stakeholders –
ParliamentMedia industryAcademyCivil societyThe media regulatorThe public
Defining the citizen interest
A challenge for both regulatory …
‘Citizens, consumers – people basically, as I prefer to call them’
‘if you engage with consumers, do you engage separately with citizens?’
‘… probably self-appointed, probably issue-driven, non-representative groups’
and civil society bodies…
‘If you have just the language of citizens, you end up with a load of nebulous and high level public interest-type objectives’
‘It’s easier to regulate consumer issues… than citizenship issues which involve social, cultural, democratic issues’
Emerging directions at Ofcom
Recognition of a citizen interest in networks/services as well as content
Definition of citizen as ‘vulnerable’ minority in need of regulatory intervention
Citizens identified and represented by regulator through ‘rigorous’ market research evidence
Yet Ofcom responsive to alternative views, because it must be transparent, accountable, efficient
Responses from civil society
Multiple voices, diverse bodies
Mostly weak, under-resourced, ill-coordinated, lacking specialist expertise, struggling to keep up
In the spirit of openness and engagement, Ofcom hosts many meetings, and conducts most research
Hence, the institutional management of the public sphere
Including - the Consumer Panel as ‘the critical friend’
Note also the movement of people
The public’s perspective
People’s position as citizens vis a vis media and communications has been thoroughly researched… including in our ‘public connection’ project
most watch the news conscientiously, though in numbers are declining
they are disillusioned but not uninterested
they are aware of the news agenda but feel distanced from it
they follow particular issues if not party politics
they care emotionally about issues but feel they can’t change things
their attention may not result in interest, interest may not result in action
they doubt the experts’ competence but feel no-one will listen to them
now they follow multiple sources but are unsure how to evaluate these
Public dilemmas over regulation
Focus group discussions revealed
Many strongly held views, pivoting around key dilemmas
Initial reaction – against red tape, stupid rules stories, nanny state
discourse
So, public endorses consumer choice, information transparency,
individual rights, liberalised markets
But also stories of consumer failures, unprotected consumers,
dangerous situations, exploited individuals
Limits to public support for deregulation
Difficult to think of citizen issues/risk re media and communications
Conclusions
In practice, the regulator doesn’t recognise any great concerns from
others
Civil society bodies (including the academy) have a weak voice
Now shifted to the centre of the regulatory framework, the public is
ambivalent
The public struggles to speak as a collective, unclear how to articulate
its responsibility, can’t find point of focus for action
So, how should citizens’ interests be furthered and by whom?
Neil Buckley, Ofcom, Policy Director, Consumer Helen Normoyle, Ofcom, Director of Market Research Robin Foster, Ofcom, Partner, Strategy and Markets Julie Myers, Ofcom, Consumer Panel Advisor, Strategy Kip Meek, Ofcom, Senior Partner, Competition Colette Bowe, Ofcom, Consumer Panel Chair Matt Peacock, Ofcom, Communications Director Graham Howell, Ofcom, Board Secretary Richard Hooper, Ofcom, Chair Content Board (retiring) Rhodri Williams, Ofcom, Chair Welsh Advisory Committee Tony Stoller, Ofcom, Exec Committee, External Relations Simon Pitts, ITV, Controller for Regulatory Policy Stephen Whittle, BBC (ex BSC), Head of Public Policy Claire Milne, Freelance Consumer (Telecoms) Spokesperson Pat Holland & colleagues, Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom Jocelyn Hay, Chairman, Voice of the Listener and Viewer Don Redding, Campaign Coordinator, Public Voice Russ Taylor/Luke Gibbs, Founders, OfcomWatch John Beyer, Director, MediaWatch-UK Allan Williams, Senior Policy Advisor, Consumers’ Association Richard Collins, Academic, ex-Oftel Advisor Paul Skidmore, Demos