The V-chip is a highly significant part of the discussion about whether television (or broadcasting in general) deserves some special attention in terms of its accessibility to children, its particular power to affect conduct, and its invasiveness. But as this notion of filtering and labeling has caught the imagination of the regulator, the legislator, and all those who wish to consider new ways to alter bargaining over imagery in society, the very idea of the V-chip or its equivalent is moving across other technologies, including the Internet. The V-chip issue has also fueled the ongoing debate about violence and sexual practices in society, and how representations on television relate to those practices. Although the initial concept of the V-chip is simple, its flow into the public realm raises so many extraordinary questions that the introduction and production of the chip virtually serves as a case study in problems of law and public policy. The very conceptualization of speech in society is being affected by this issue. Accordingly, the place of the V-chip in this debate is increasingly important; indeed, it may be argued that the V-chip's contribution to legal argumentation may be greater than its ultimate contribution to the relationship between children and imagery. Among the questions the contributors address are: *What research basis is necessary to require a framework for labeling and rating? *What relationship between government and the image-producing industries can be characterized--for constitutional and other reasons--as voluntary as opposed to coercive? *Who should evaluate these images? *To what extent should the evaluation process be centralized and/or distributed? *What assessment is appropriate to evaluate whether the experiment is "successful?" In addition to the V-chip's origin's in Canada and its further evolution in the United States, this book discusses the development of the V-chip and television rating systems in Europe, Australia, and throughout the world. It also includes essays which contrast the very different approaches in Canada and the United States in terms of the role of regulatory agency, industry, and government.

A study of the relationship between international media regulations and efforts by nation-states to assert sovereignty and shape media at home and abroad.

Publisher Description

This exploration of media policymaking looks at its shift from a field essentially defined by national legislative and regulatory frameworks and a minimum of international supervision to a complex ecology of interdependent structures. A number of issues, themes, and case studies illustrate and enhance the understanding of this situation. The text amplifies the empirical basis for a critique of the emerging global media policy environment as well as serves as a resource for actors seeking to intervene effectively in the area of media policy.

"According to Guins, these new "control technologies" are designed to embody an ethos of neoliberal governance - through the very media that have been previously presumed to warrant management, legislation, and policing. Repositioned within a discourse of empowerment, security, and choice, the action of regulation, he reveals, has been relocated into the hands of users."--BOOK JACKET.

The role that children and youth play in the emerging digital media culture; as consumers targeted by marketing campaigns, as creators of their own digital culture, and as political participants. Children and teens today have integrated digital culture seamlessly into their lives. For most, using the Internet, playing videogames, downloading music onto an iPod, or multitasking with a cell phone is no more complicated than setting the toaster oven to "bake" or turning on the TV. In Generation Digital, media expert and activist Kathryn C. Montgomery examines the ways in which the new media landscape is changing the nature of childhood and adolescence and analyzes recent political debates that have shaped both policy and practice in digital culture. The media has pictured the so-called "digital generation" in contradictory ways: as bold trailblazers and innocent victims, as active creators of digital culture and passive targets of digital marketing. This, says Montgomery, reflects our ambivalent attitude toward both youth and technology. She charts a confluence of historical trends that made children and teens a particularly valuable target market during the early commercialization of the Internet and describes the consumer-group advocacy campaign that led to a law to protect children's privacy on the Internet. Montgomery recounts—as a participant and as a media scholar—the highly publicized battles over indecency and pornography on the Internet. She shows how digital marketing taps into teenagers' developmental needs and how three public service campaigns—about sexuality, smoking, and political involvement—borrowed their techniques from commercial digital marketers. Not all of today's techno-savvy youth are politically disaffected; Generation Digital chronicles the ways that many have used the Internet as a political tool, mobilizing young voters in 2004 and waging battles with the music and media industries over control of cultural expression online. Montgomery's unique perspective as both advocate and analyst will help parents, politicians, and corporations take the necessary steps to create an open, diverse, equitable, and safe digital media culture for young people.

Discusses why and how we should rate the content of television programs for violence

From the mid-1990s onwards concerns regarding the exposure of children to harmful content in the increasingly digital media environment intensified. Soon thereafter policy makers across Europe realised that alternative regulatory instruments, such as self- and co-regulation, might be more appropriate than traditional legislation to address this matter of public interest. Taking the complex and delicate nature of protecting minors into account, this book provides an in-depth legal analysis of the alternative regulatory instruments that can be used to regulate content in the digital era, with particular attention to the protection of fundamental rights, such as freedom of expression, privacy and procedural guarantees, internal market regulation, competition rules, and implementation requirements.

This exploration of violence in films questions why adults are often entertained by films that social and cultural consensus considers extreme and brutal. Hill argues that understanding the process of viewing violence is one way to open up the current debate concerning the effects of violence to include objective and broad-minded responses to this phenomenon.