Monitoring Mediascapes : A Premise of Wisdom-Based EU Media Governance

Abstract

Seldom in the era of the convoluted Gordian knot of mediatised societies has a theoretical concept emerged that has the potential to cut through the tangle of information, misinformation and disinformation. Seldom have theoretical concepts allowed academia and media policymakers to trumpet EUREKA! In the era of mediatised societies simultaneously experiencing information overload and scarcity of truthful and reliable information, societal potential for deliberative communication becomes more important than ever.

A central proposition of this book is that contemporary democratic societies ought to create a resilient communication culture to strengthen European democracy. Proactive, wisdom-based media governance is proposed to mitigate the risks for deliberative communication resulting from media transformations. The novelty of this book is the methodology for detecting those emerging risks through regularly analysing and assessing each country’s capability of monitoring their mediascapes.

This monitoring of mediascapes means asking critical questions, such as: What exactly is known about the consequences of media transformations producing risks for deliberative communication and consequently, democracy? What is the worth of this knowledge (or What is this knowledge worth)? What knowledge is not known and where are the information gaps? This book focuses on the capability of a sample of 14 EU countries to collect relevant data, carry out research and analysis and finally assess the risks and opportunities associated with media development in terms of the societies’ potential for deliberative communication.

To turn the risks into opportunities, three strategies can be used: (1) setting a research agenda that takes into consideration the needs of society, not enterprises, and establish a policy of sustainable funding of journalism, media and communication research; (2) addressing the trend of the increasing volume of publications and the challenge of information overload; (3) improve the mechanisms for data and information collection outside academia