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