New Global Media and the Role of the StateBook review of “ The handbook of new media”

Qiong TangCourse: Internet and New Media

Overview This chapter addresses some of the challenges faced by nation-states in devising communication policies for the new global ICTs. The authors examined three key areas of legal and policy conflict over computer networks: intellectual property, privacy and freedom of expression. And they concludes by examining some policy principles and new models of regulation proposed by scholars to adapt national governance mechanisms for the effective regulation of global media.

Outline

About intellectual propertyAbout privacyAbout freedom of expressionAbout policy principles and models of gobal media regulation* Market based regulation* National public service regulation* International and multinational regimes* International policy principlesConclusionDiscussion & Question

Authors Laura Steinan Associate Professor in the Radio-Television-Film Department, the University of Texas at Austin.She researches and writes about communication law and policy, political communication, and alternative and public media.Her RTF courses include: Communication, Law and Power; Media and Communication Law; The Social Documentary; Alternative Media; and Communication Technology and Society.

Nikhil Sinhaan internationally recognized expert on the global information technology and former Associate Dean in the College of Communication at The University of Texas at Austin.

About intellectual propertyComputer networks intensify the conflict between expression as a commodity and as a collective good.Intellectual property law grants copyright holders exclusive rights to control copying and other uses of creative works for a limited period of time.

General accepted:Computer network technology can facilitate the extension of copyright controls or the free exchange of information and communication.

Whether computer networks will underprotect or overprotect intellectual property?

• Computer networks enable non-copyright holders to engage in the widespread duplication and dissemination of copyrighted materialMajority

• Computer technology may increase copyright holder control over intellectual property and override collective fair use principles for the sake of private profits.Minority

Three main problems

* There are no ‘international copyrights that enable individuals to protect work throughout the world.

* Many developing countries are reluctant to uphold intellectual property laws or agreements that make access to information more costly, impede technology transfer and increase the monopoly power of multinational corporations.

* Tensions over intellectual property law both within and between countries revolve largely around where to draw the line between information control and the free flow of information.

Privacy Privacy is the claim of individuals, groups and institutions to determine for themselves, when, how and to what extent information about them is communicated to others.

Who controls personal information ?Governments must determine whether privacy policies are necessary to limit the collection and use of personal information by both governmental and private parties.

• Privacy rights are bad for commerce, technologically unenforceable, and antithetical to free speech

Opponents of government regulation

• Privacy is a social value that governments must affirmatively protect.

proponents of government regulation

Governmental attempts to regulate data privacy can be assessed according to the degree of protection offered to citizens in four general categories

Consent: deals with the right of individuals to decide when, how and what kinds of info others collect about them over a computer network.

Disclosure: terms, conditions and circumstances

Security and accuracy: the obligation of info collecting agencies to ensure that the collected info is securely stored and accurately maintained.

Enforcement: effectiveness of privacy and data protection laws depends on their mechanisms for enforcement.

Freedom of expression

Freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas in all media regardless of geographical frontiers.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948

* Computer networks open up new and significant opportunities to engage in expression.

* Government attempts to control political and cultural content on computer networks raise questions of how speech rights will be configured in there forums and what content government can legitimately regulate.

Three primary concerns that relate to the conditions prohibiting or promoting freedom of expression.* Analysts identify potential methods of government control of info.* Scholars examine the efforts of authoritarian of non-democratic governments to control political speech.* Scholars examine the jurisdictional questions raised when the social and cultural restrictions on speech in one country clash with those of another.

Market-based regulation

* Marketplace regulation of computer networks, through code and contracts, limits the sovereign powers of nations by reducing their role to enforcing market structures.

* Market regulation also referred to as private sector or self regulation, allows private actors operating within competitive markets to settle social conflicts over communication.

* Private sector regulations may be implemented through voluntary standards and codes, contracts between service or access providers and consumers, and the conscious design of network architecture.

* Regulation of behavior over computer networks can also be achieved through the use of private contracts.

ProblemPrivate sector regulations are often non-transparent

National public service regulationNational politically determined, public service regulation of communication policy can be set through national laws, legislation and rule making bodies.

Advantage :

allows countries to systematically consider different policy options and to collectively choose the values animating their communication systems.

Civil societyInternational interactions and transactions are increasingly being seen as part of the emergence of a global or transnational civil society.

Weak points

If fail to set national policy in a comprehensive ore coordinated way, conflicting rules can hinder electronic commerce and create uncertainty for network users.National regulation alone cannot solve problems that arise when communication crosses numerous jurisdictions with conflicting policies.

• If not kept in check by a strong conception of public rights, governments may go beyond maintaining the structures that protect rights and instead become a prime violator of these rights.First

• f fail to set national policy in a comprehensive ore coordinated way, conflicting rules can hinder electronic commerce and create uncertainty for network usersSecond

FinallyNational regulation alone cannot solve problems that arise when communication crosses numerous jurisdictions with conflicting policies.

ConclusionMany governments fear the loss of political and economic sovereignty, others the loss of cultural identity.

New media highlight a gap that now exists between life and governance.

Social conflicts in each of these areas demand policy responses that demarcate public rights, set behavioral standards and curtail abusive practices.

Discussion & Question

What terms can represent the world’s nations and citizenry legitimately under which national and international governance mechanisms?

Thank You!