Regulating for Trust in Journalism. Standards regulation in the age of blended media by Lara Fielden

Detailed Description

2011 has been awash with investigations, consultations, scandals, and inquiries into issues of journalistic standards and wider media regulation in the UK. This book argues that underlying them is a deepening conflict between converging media content on the one hand, and static standards regulation on the other.

Broadcast, newspaper, video on demand and other online content are increasingly indistinguishable. Yet their regulation is disconnected, at times contradictory, and increasingly lacks the coherence and consistency on which public trust depends. Accessed via a PC, smart phone or tablet device, and with the advent of internet-connected televisions, regulated and unregulated journalism, licensed and unlicensed services, are becoming impossible to differentiate. Yet some content is subject to comprehensive, statutory regulation, some to voluntary self-regulated rules, some to no regulatory authority at all.

In this book Lara Fielden reviews standards regulation across media platforms. She illustrates regulatory inconsistencies through a range of case studies, finds evidence of consumer confusion and provides examples of international responses to the challenge of convergence. She argues that incoherence in journalistic standards risks undermining public trust across media platforms, and damaging public confidence in sources of information and analysis on which citizens depend in order to make informed, democratic choices. She draws on her experience in both journalism and regulation to argue for a new regulatory settlement across the media. The settlement she proposes incentivises transparently signalled standards as a selling point for both existing and emerging media providers, and places informed, enabled citizens at its heart.

 “Lara Fielden’s impressive sweep of UK media regulation makes the case for an entirely new system better suited to the digital age. Read her book both to understand the true complexity of our existing regulatory system and to see her smart model for reform.”

Martin Moore, Director, Media Standards Trust

 “This is a remarkably comprehensive and wide ranging work and could not be more timely. I would genuinely recommend that anyone engaged with the very serious debate on press and media regulation gives it a good look.”

Steve Hewlett. Presenter of The Media Show, BBC Radio 4, Guardian columnist and media analyst