Final timetable for the conference:

Unit for Journalism Research, Goldsmiths College & ESRC

Media policy-making and power: a symposium

Friday 23 September 2005, 9.30-5.30
Goldsmiths College, University of London

Media policy is changing both in its direction and in its co-ordination.
The ‘shape’ of the British media was traditionally decided on by a handful
of government ministers and officials and reported largely in the business
pages of the press. At a time of considerable change in the global media
environment, new actors and new paradigms are emerging that have increased
the profile of media policy-making and shifted the balance of power
between corporate and public service interests in the policy-making
process.

This symposium brings together informed participants in and commentators
on British media policy-making to address key questions that have arisen
out of recent developments like the 2003 Communications Act and BBC
Charter Review. To what extent is the policy process dominated by industry
lobbyists or government voices? How open and accountable is the policy-
making process? What role can the public play in influencing decision-
making? Is media policy-making increasingly centralized in Downing Street
or dispersed as the number of ‘stakeholders’ grows? What are the
principles and objectives that are guiding policy-makers today?

The symposium offers the opportunity for academics, regulators, industry
members, students and the general public to debate and reflect on a
process that shapes the structure and performance of the British media.

9.30 Registration

10-11.15am
1) Media policy-making in perspective (chair: Natalie Fenton)
Professor Michael Moran (University of Manchester, author of The British
Regulatory State)
Professor Jean Seaton (University of Westminster, co-author of Power
without Responsibility)
Des Freedman (Goldsmiths College, author of The Television Policies of the
Labour Party)

11.30-1pm
2) The battle over the 2003 Communications Act (chair: Steve Barnett)
Bill Bush (former special adviser to culture secretary Tessa Jowell)
Don Redding (Co-ordinator, Public Voice)
Lord Puttnam (chair of the Joint Committee on the Communications Bill)

1-2pm lunch

2-3.30pm
3) Dynamics of press policy-making (chair: Angela Phillips)
David Seymour (Political editor: Mirror Group Newspapers)
Professor Eric Barendt (UCL, co-author of Media Law)
Professor James Curran (Goldsmiths College, author of Media and Power)

3.45-5.15pm
4) An evaluation of Ofcom’s Public Service Broadcasting Review and BBC
Charter Review (chair: Julian Petley)
Robin Foster (special adviser, Ofcom)
Tim Gardam (member of Lord Burns’ panel on BBC Charter Review)
David Levy (controller of public policy, BBC)

5.15-5.30 Closing comments and report from Liverpool Broadcasting
Conference by Granville Williams, editor Free Press

Tickets (including lunch) are free but registration is essential. Please
contact Kim Allen ([log in to unmask]) or David Lee ([log in to unmask])
to register.