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Title: 'Challenges of convergence to media regulation: tools for analysis' Speaker: Hannu Nieminen, Professor of Media and Communications Policy, University of Helsinki Date: 3 April 2013 Time: 2:00-4:00 pm Room: A6.9, Harrow Campus, University of Westminster, Northwick Park tube (Metropolitan Line) All welcome but please email Dr Anastasia Kavada at [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> if you'd like to attend. Abstract: The main question in my paper is: from the viewpoint of the ideal of democratization of communication policy and regulation, how are we to understand the changes taking place in media & communication policies and regulation? Traditionally policies and regulation have followed sector-based logics (i.e. print, av-media, telecoms, recorded media). However, due to digitalization and computerization, sector-based approach appears to have lost much of its validity, and there is a drive for a new regulatory ideology with conflicting elements. Some recent attempts to describe the emerging new regulatory environment include McQuail & van Cuilenburg's (2003) thesis of the media policy paradigm shift and Hallin & Mancini's (2004) prediction of the triumph of the North Atlantic liberal model of media system. There is not, however, consensus among researchers of the character and quality of the changes in European media policy. In my paper I develop a historically based approach to analyse these changes. I will apply the concepts of path dependence, policy transfer, multiple streams analysis, and politics of justification to chart the ways how policies and regulatory frameworks have historically emerged in the fields of media and communication. Biography: Hannu Nieminen ([log in to unmask]) is professor of media and communications policy at the Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki, Finland. He received his Ph.D. in 1996 in the University of Westminster, London. His research interests include media and democracy, theories of public sphere, and communication policy and regulation. Currently he is leading a Finnish Academy funded project "Facing the Coordination Challenge: Problems, Policies, and Politics in Media and Communications Regulation" (2011-2015). Professor Nieminen is a member of the European Science Foundation Pool of Reviewers (2010-). (E-mail address: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) The University of Westminster is a charity and a company limited by guarantee. Registration number: 977818 England. Registered Office: 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW.