The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies, 7 Volume Set

1

The Governance of Communication and Culture

Regularizing the Regimes of Production and Consumption

Katharine Sarikakis

ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the role of communication and cultural policy in regularizing changes in the regime of accumulation and in the processes of production and consumption of cultural goods. It explores the emergence of new geographies of power in decision-making and the people in production and consumption who define the ways in which the circulation and accumulation of cultural goods and profits is developing. Working with definitions of cultural policy and the European experience as a geography of political and political–economic power for decision-making, the chapter places Europe in the continuum of global production/consumption in the digital age.

Introduction: The Changing Landscape of Media and Culture

A careful look at everyday life in the twenty-first century reveals the centrality of media and communication as forces facilitating democratic processes and participation, cultural expression and exchange, or economic activity – at local and national levels as well as globally. The governance of these institutions has increasingly become a matter of interest not only for policymakers in the field of culture and media, but also for various industries that, until recently, were only very loosely associated with this field – such as electronics, or even transportation. Behind today's world of multiplatform media usage and attention to cultural–civic ...