European Media Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

European Media Policy - Essay Example The media industry is booming day by day and is touching new horizons. Its importance is unparalleled in this society as it serves so many needs and without the presence of media, a certain loophole will be left which can not be filled by any other form of communication.1 When it comes to a media policy, this means that there should be regulation and governance in this industry too. The media, if let loose, can have damaging effects as well. Because it is the media of a country which represents the country worldwide and can have dangerous circumstances for the country if, at any point in time, the media broadcasts or prints something which hurts the social, political and emotional sentiments of some other race, culture or country. Therefore, media has to be regulated so that it is unbiased, so that proper rules are followed, so that coverage is done in a standardized form. The European Media Policy is the media policy which regulates the media channels found in the European Union. There is a forum known as the Information Society and Media, which has an European Commissioner and a Directorate General, presently they are Viviane Reding and Fabio Colasanti respectively. The Directorate General has included the "Media" in his responsibilities since January 2005 only. Before this date, he was only responsible for the Information Society. The European Commission also maintains a Commissioner of Communication, whose job description is to maintain links and contacts with the media and have a certain level of relationship with the media. 2 The aims of the European Media Policy is that it wants to see Europe as a landscape with a strong presence and foothold of media and it wants to have an expression based on the element of media pluralism. Another aim of the European Media Policy is to stand up to such a level where it can compete with other media industries on a global and international scale. Pros of European Media Policy One of the major pros of the European Media Policy is that it is seen as a national responsibility by all. Everyone who is concerned or related with the media takes full responsibility of bringing out the best they can in providing news and entertainment plus keeping in mind that every thing has its limitations. This can be generalized to a term self-governance. The stakeholders and the owners of media can self-regulate themselves so as to decrease the need for a strict overlook of the Government and Media Bodies in this matter. The second major pro of the European Media Policy is that when it comes to the media owners and the Government, neither of them have a stronger foothold than the other in the relationship that they share. If it had been such a case where the Government would have had an upper edge in this relationship that they share and would have been easily able to influence the media without the media having any say as to how the regulation should be done, then there would have been a problem. In the case of the European media policy, the media gets affected, directly or indirectly, with situations that take place on a Government level and likewise, the Government is affected by the way the media will