Types of media regulation policy laws Policy in some ways is the most abstract It is the primary guidelines and goals The framework for how the media industry should operate Like the president who comes up with certain policies and ideas The congress to do certain things or undo certain things President Obama wasn t going to worry about obscenity and decency protection as the FCC did when Bush was president Obama said they weren t going to be unconcerned with these things but it wasn t necessarily going to be a priority for them Congress can set an agenda so policy in addition to media content can have a number of ways of how people set the agenda on what we think about or looking at The president in some way has the largest microphone whatever he says automatically becomes news Even congress has to work harder to have something get on the agenda The courts likewise The corporations who want to see a change have to lobby thousands are doing that The public interest groups don t have quite as many people but not as well paid Then people push these various factors to try to enact the interests for their corporation or set of issues that they are concerned about in the law Laws are binding rules that usually evolve from policy but are also legally enforceable So frequently we have a policy debate first In some ways we are having a big policy debate about all kinds of social issues Gay marriage abortion rights immigration schooling higher education whether to pay for this that or that We have policy debate all the time and the discussion in the news media is a part of that policy debate Then that policy debate usually evolves a bit and we get to the point where we are making binding rules which are also hopefully legally enforceable Congress does most of that and in some ways the biggest picture part of that But when congress passes a law it then passes a lot of the specific rule making on the regulatory agencies like FCC
View Full Document
Unlocking...