Universität Zürich

IPMZ - Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research

Division on Media Change & Innovation

Andreasstrasse 15
CH-8050 Zurich
Phone +41 (0)44 635 20 92
Fax +41 (0)44 634 49 34
Contact

News

  • [Film] Medienwandel in der Schweiz

    24th August 10

     

    Medieninnovationen verändern die Art und Weise, wie wir öffentlich und privat kommunizieren. Während diese Veränderungen in anderen Ländern, wie etwa den USA, bereits gut dokumentiert sind, ist die Datenlage in der Schweiz noch recht mangelhaft.

    Wie sieht also der Medienwandel in der Schweiz aus? Treffen die häufig kolportierten Befunde über die Krise der traditionellen Print- und Rundfunkunternehmen und den Boom bei Internetfirmen auch für die Schweiz zu? Welche Schlussfolgerungen sind daraus zu ziehen?

    Studierende unseres Forschungsseminars haben die verfügbaren Statistiken über Veränderungen bei Massenmedien, Internet und Telekommunikation in der Schweiz zusammengetragen, damit gängige Thesen über die Auswirkungen des aktuellen Medienwandels überprüft und einige verblüffende Erkenntnisse zu einem Youtube-Video verarbeitet.

    Wir hoffen, dass der Film die Diskussion des Medienwandels in der Schweiz belebt.

    Weitere Infos zum Film
    Dieser Film entstand im Forschungsseminar „Medienwandel -- Gesellschaftswandel" von Prof. Michael Latzer und lic. phil. Andreas Braendle an der Abteilung Medienwandel & Innovation des Instituts für Publizistikwissenschaft und Medienforschung (IPMZ) der Universität Zürich

    Credits

    • Recherche & Konzept: Eddie Brand, Patrizia Burger, René Köhne, Susann König, Kris Lüdi, Christian Stark, Silvio Wernli
    • Umsetzung: Kris Lüdi
    • Projektleitung: Michael Latzer & Andreas Braendle

  • New Course by Bill Drake! The Changing Global Communications Order: Governing Electronic Networks

    23rd August 10

     

    The Division on Media Change & Innovation is excited to offer this new and cutting edge course in the Autumn term. Since the 1850s, governments, business, and civil society have established "rules of the game" governing international communication markets and cross-border information flows. Collectively, these frameworks define the global communications order. In recent years that order has been transformed by privatization, liberalization, and the Internet. This course will survey the evolution, political-economic power dynamics, and social impact of the global governance arrangements for telecommunications regulation, technical standardization, radio frequency spectrum, satellites, trade in goods and communication services, electronic commerce, intellectual property, mass media, Internet content, Internet domain names and numbers, cybercrime and security, privacy protection, and development, as well as the broader debates in the United Nations’ World Summit on the Information Society and Internet Governance Forum.    

    The course will be taught by Dr. William Drake, who is a Senior Associate of the Centre for International Governance at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva and a co-editor of the MIT Press book series, The Information Revolution and Global Politics. Drake is a leading international scholar of global communications policy, and has a diverse background.  He has taught at Georgetown University and the University of California, San Diego in the USA; was a Senior Associate and Director of the Project on the Information Revolution and World Politics at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an influential foreign policy think tank in Washington DC; and has served as the elected president of a global civil liberties organization, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility.

     

    Drake is heavily involved as a public interest activist in a number of key global governance processes examined inthis course, such as the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), and the UN’s Internet Governance Forum.  As such, in this course he will be presenting an “insider’s perspective” on the current geopolitics of governance, particularly with respect to the Internet.  He has also been involved in a number of related global networks and initiatives, such as the Global Internet Governance Academic Network and the International Summer Schools on Internet Governance.  You can read more about him at http://www.linkedin.com/in/williamjdrake  and watch his brief remarks at the UN’s 2009 Internet Governance Forum in Sharm el Sheikh http://tinyurl.com/Drake-IGF09.

    This course will be held biweekly on Mondays from 2 to 6pm. Course dates are:

    • September 20
    • October 4
    • October 18
    • November 1
    • November 15
    • November 29
    • December 13

    Course language is English.

    More

  • Two New Publications: International Telecommunications Policy Review and Medialex

    19th July 10

     

    Further findings from the assessment of the Swiss public-service broadcaster’s (SRG) Internet offer have been published in the International Telecommunications Policy Review and in Medialex. Find more information in the publications section:

    • Latzer, Michael / Braendle, Andreas / Just, Natascha / Saurwein, Florian (2010): Public-Service Broadcasting Online: Assessing Compliance with Regulatory Requirements. In: International Telecommunications Policy Review, 17(2), 1-25 [more]
    • Latzer, Michael / Braendle, Andreas / Just, Natascha / Saurwein, Florian (2010): SRG Online Beobachtung: Konzessionskonformität von Webseiten und elektronischen Verbindungen. In: medialex, 15(2), 77-83 [more]

    Further findings from the assessment of the Swiss public-service broadcaster’s (SRG) Internet offer have been published in the International Telecommunications Policy Review and in Medialex. Find more information in the publications section:

     

    Latzer, Michael / Braendle, Andreas / Just, Natascha / Saurwein, Florian (2010): Public-Service Broadcasting Online: Assessing Compliance with Regulatory Requirements. In: International Telecommunications Policy Review, 17(2), 1-25 [more]

     

    Latzer, Michael / Braendle, Andreas / Just, Natascha / Saurwein, Florian (2010): SRG Online Beobachtung: Konzessionskonformität von Webseiten und elektronischen Verbindungen. In: medialex, 15(2), 77-83 [more]

  • Media Change & Innovation to Present Research at International Conferences

    22nd June 10

     

    Results of ongoing research of the IPMZ’s Division on Media Change & Innovation will be presented at international conferences during the next two weeks.

     

    • On June 22, Michael Latzer and Florian Saurwein will contribute to the 19th Annual Conference of the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) in Singapore with a paper on ‘Regulatory Choice in Communications: The Case of Content-Rating Schemes in the Audiovisual Industry’.
    • Results of the monitoring and assessment of the Swiss public broadcaster’s (SRG) Internet offer will be presented to the participants of the 60th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) in Singapore, June 22-26. The conference is entitled ‘Matters of Communication: Political, Cultural, Technological Challenges’. Michael Latzer, Natascha Just, Florian Saurwein and Andreas Braendle will contribute to a Communication Law & Policy panel with the paper ‘Public Service Broadcasting Online: Assessing Compliance with Regulatory Requirements’.
    • From June 27-30 Media Change & Innovation will also take part in the 18th Biennial Conference of the International Telecommunications Society (ITS) in Tokyo at Waseda University and presents results from its study SRG Online Observation. The conference titled “Culture, Communication and the Cutting Edge of Technology” will be held in Association with the 27th Annual Conference of the Japan Society of Information and Communication Research (JSICR).




  • Media Change & Innovation continues assessment of the SRG Internet offer

    21st May 10

    The Division on Media Change & Innovation of the IPMZ continues the monitoring and assessment of the SRG Internet offer in 2010. The project SRG Online Assessment 2010 is commissioned by the Swiss regulator BAKOM as part of its Media Research 2010 special focus on the continuous program analysis of television, radio and online offers of the SRG. The study’s focus is–in replication of its 2009 analysis–on the extent of compliance of the SRG online services with the regulatory requirements of the charter (e.g., relation of online offers to broadcasts, no commercial links). It builds on a methodological approach, which has been developed and applied for the SRG Online Assessment 2009 and conducts a content analysis to give insights into the structure and functioning of the websites of five SRG enterprise units, and a link analysis to capture the intensity of electronic linking and the pattern of interconnection with other websites. The replication of the analysis will show first trends of development and change.

     

    For more information see the project website. Results will be available by the end of 2010.

     

  • Report on the Digital Dividend in Austria Published – Politicians Follow Recommendations

    7th May 10

     

    The research report on the utilization of the Digital Dividend in Austria, conducted by Michael Latzer together with Arne Boernsen (AB Consulting), Tim Braulke (Infront Consulting & Management) and Joern Kruse (Helmut-Schmidt University, Hamburg), has been published by the Austrian regulator RTR. The responsible Austrian minister has already announced that she will follow the study’s recommendations and award the available spectrum for broadband mobile communication.


    The Digital Dividend, a product of digitalisation and convergence in the communications sector, denotes those frequencies that are freed up as a result of the switchover from analogue TV to more spectrally efficient digital TV. The digital dividend spectrum is suitable for a wide range of potential uses. The political decision how this valuable freed up spectrum is used for mobile communication (e.g. broadband internet) and/or for broadcasting (e.g. HDTV) is heavily debated worldwide.

    More:

  • New research project: independence and efficiency of European media regulators

    4th February 10

    The Division on Media Change & Innovation participates as country expert in a study that analyzes the independence and efficiency of European regulatory authorities for audiovisual media. The study was contracted by the European Commission to an international research consortium under the direction of the Hans-Bredow-Institut für Medienforschung. Further consortium partners are: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Central European University, Cullen International, and Perspective Associates.
     
    A network of country experts cooperates with the consortium and provides the data from 43 countries covered by the study (EU member states, candidate and potential candidate countries to the EU, EFTA countries as well as selected other countries).
     
    The overall aim of the study is the development of indicators that allow the measurement of independence of regulatory bodies in the field of audiovisual media as well as the assessment of these bodies’ functioning to ensure an effective application of the AVMS Directive.
     
    The Division on Media Change & Innovation of the IPMZ contributes to the study with the analyses of independent regulatory authorities in Switzerland and Austria.

    Find more information on the Project Page

  • Programm der öffentlichen Vortragsreihe steht fest

    22nd January 10

    In diesem Frühlingssemester gibt es für Studierende am IPMZ – im Rahmen der Vorlesung „Digitale Destabilisierung: Medienwandel durch Konvergenz“ – die einmalige Gelegenheit, eine Reihe renommierter Gastredner aus den USA, Grossbritannien, Deutschland und der Schweiz zu treffen. Diskutieren Sie mit jenen Experten aus Wirtschaft und Politik, die die Veränderungen im Kommunikationssektor wesentlich mitprägen sowie mit Wissenschaftern, die diese analysieren.

     

    Die öffentliche Vortragsreihe des IPMZ wird von der Abteilung Medienwandel & Innovation veranstaltet und ist in die wöchentlich stattfindende Vorlesung von Prof. Michael Latzer, Dr. Natascha Just und lic. phil. Andreas Braendle integriert. Sie ist für Bachelor und Lizstudierende als Wahlpflichtvorlesung und als Wahlvorlesung anrechenbar, steht aber auch anderen Studierenden und Interessierten offen.

     

    Folgende Gastredner besuchen das IPMZ:

     

    Christoph Neuberger

    Christoph Neuberger ist Professor am Institut für Kommunikationswissenschaft der Universität Münster und ein renommierter deutscher Journalismus- und Internetforscher. Seine Präsentation trägt den Titel: "Niedergang oder Neustart des Journalismus? Das Internet und seine Folgen" (23. März).
    Martin Radelfinger Martin Radelfinger leitet das Business Development bei Goldbach Media, dem grössten Vermarkter für elektronische und Online-Medien in der Schweiz. Er skizziert seine Sicht der Destabilisierung des Werbemarktes durch Medienkonvergenz und das Internet (13. April).
    Felix Graf Felix Graf ist COO bei Teleclub AG und war als Leiter Entertainment & Multimedia bei Swisscom massgeblich für den Aufbau von Bluewin TV (IPTV) zuständig. Er trägt zum Thema Destabilisierung der Telekommunikation und Medienindustrie vor (20. April).
    Hans-Jürg Fehr Hans-Jürg Fehr, Schweizer Nationalrat, Medienpolitiker und vormaliger Präsident der SP Schweiz, spricht über den politischen Handlungsbedarf (4. Mai).
    William H Dutton

    William H. Dutton ist Professor an der Oxford University (GB) und Leiter des Oxford Internet Institutes. Er präsentiert seine Forschung zum Internet und der Entstehung einer fünften Gewalt (11. Mai).
    Johannes M. Bauer

    Johannes M. Bauer ist Professor am Institute of Telecommunications, Information Studies and Media der Michigan State University (USA). Er vergleicht Netzneutralität und Internetentwicklung in den USA und Europa (18. Mai).

     

    Veranstaltungsort: Uni Hauptgebäude, Rämistr. 71, KOL-F-117

    Termin: jeweils Dienstags um 18:15 Uhr. (Link Vorlesungsverzeichnis UZH)

    Mehr

  • International Telecom Expert to lecture at IPMZ

    21st January 10

     

    Johannes M. Bauer, Prof. in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media at Michigan State University, confirmed his participation as guest speaker of the Public Lecture Series that is part of the course «Digitale Destabilisierung: Medienwandel durch Konvergenz».

     

    On May 18, 2010 he is going to lecture at the IPMZ about net neutrality and Internet development in Europe and the USA.

  • Media Policy Expert of the Swiss National Council to lecture at IPMZ

    12th January 10

     

    Hans-Jürg Fehr, member of the Swiss National Council and former president of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland, is going to guest lecture on May 4, 2010 on the occasion of the Public Lecture Series that is part of the course Digitale Destabilisierung: Medienwandel durch Konvergenz. His presentation is entitled "Welchen politischen Handlungsbedarf erzeugt das Internet?"

     

    Other confirmed speakers for the Public Lecture Series include:

     

    Details will follow

  • Project on the controversial subject « Digital Dividend » awarded

    11th January 10

     

     

    Michael Latzer is part of an international research group that investigates the options for using the Digital Dividend in Austria. Other members are Arne Boernsen (AB Consulting), Tim Braulke (Infront Consulting & Management) and Joern Kruse (Helmut-Schmidt University, Hamburg). The study is commissioned by the Austrian regulator RTR and will assess different usage scenarios and develop policy recommendations for this highly contended issue.

     

    The Digital Dividend, a product of digitalisation and convergence in the communications sector, denotes those frequencies that are freed up as a result of the switchover from analogue TV to more spectrally efficient digital TV. The digital dividend spectrum is suitable for a wide range of potential uses. The political decision of if and how this valuable freed up spectrum is used for mobile communication (e.g. broadband internet) and/or for broadcasting (e.g. HDTV) is heavily debated worldwide.

     

    More

  • Spring Courses Online

    16th December 09

     

    The handbook for courses for next semester has been published. IPMZ's division on Mediachange & Innovation will be offering the following courses:

     

  • Convergence Revisited - New Paper by Michael Latzer in Convergence

    28th November 09

    Convergence - The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies - features a new article by Michael Latzer. It revisits the nature and governance implications of the convergence phenomenon more than a decade after it gained major prominence.

    Convergence CoverLatzer, Michael (2009): Convergence Revisited: Toward a Modified Pattern of Communications Governance, In: Convergence – The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 15 (4), 411-426

    Abstract: This paper revisits the nature and governance implications of the convergence phenomenon more than a decade after it gained major prominence in politics and research. It analyses the reforms undertaken in reaction to convergence, outlines their common features, and argues that a worldwide trend towards a modified common governance pattern for convergent communications markets is emerging. The major constituent components include integrated strategies, control structures and legal frameworks for the convergent communications sector; a technology-neutral functional taxonomy; a subdivision into transmission and content regulation; and a growing reliance on alternative modes of regulation such as self- and coregulation.

    More

  • Guest Lecture at the Universität Tübingen

    5th November 09

    Michael Latzer is going to give a guest lecture on Neue Governancemodelle: Konvergenz und Regulierung (New Governance Models: Convergence and Regulation) in the lecture series on "Medienkonvergenz und Neue Medien", December 3, 2009 at Medienwissenschaften, Universität Tübingen

     

    Read the full program here (pdf)

  • Presentation at the Conference „Public Value in the Digital and Internet Economy“ in Hamburg

    26th October 09

     

    Natascha Just and Michael Latzer are going to present a paper on „Media policy via competition policy in the EU: pressure on public service broadcasters and the meaning of public value“ at the upcoming conference „Public Value in the Digital and Internet Economy“ of the Division on Media Economics of the German Society for Communication (DGPuK), November 13-14, 2009, in Hamburg.

  • ECREA "Communication Law and Policy" Workshop 2009

    30th September 09
    ECREA Logo ECREA Logo

     

    The Division on Media Change & Innovation hosts the 2009 workshop of the European Communication Research and Education Association's (ECREA) "Communication Law and Policy" section. It takes place in Zurich, Switzerland, on November 6-7, 2009. The workshop is jointly organized with the division "Media & Politics” of the University of Zurich's Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research (IPMZ).

     

    The theme of the workshop is "New Directions for Communication Policy Research". The state of the art of communication policy research is well documented, but where do we go from here? How do we theoretically and methodologically approach new policy issues? What policy challenges are emerging and what insights can we gain from the application of theories and methods of cognate areas? The workshop focuses on new theories, new methods, new subjects as well as new regulatory structures and instruments. It is our aim to stimulate reflection and discussion. Thus, the sessions will leave room for discussion and exchange.

     

    Please visit the official Website of ECREA-CLP Workshop 2009

  • SRG Online Assessment for BAKOM

    15th September 09

    Online services of public service broadcasters in Europe are disputed because they are in direct competition with online activities of private broadcaster and publishers. While the discussions are similar across European countries, the regulatory responses by national governments differ. In Switzerland a charter lays down the conditions for the online activities of the Swiss public broadcaster (SRG) and clarifies what kind of content is permissible. The Division on Media Change & Innovation conducted a research project commissioned by the Swiss regulator BAKOM to assess the SRG’s compliance with these regulatory requirements. For this endeavor we have (1) developed an analytical approach for the external assessment, and conducted (2) a content analysis to give insights into the structure and functioning of the websites of five SRG enterprise units, and (3) a link analysis to capture the intensity of electronic linking and the pattern of interconnection with other websites (link structure). The paper shows the potential of the developed analytical tools and the extent to which the SRG websites comply with regulatory requirements.

    Get the full research report here

    BAKOM – Official Website

  • Measuring Media Concentration and Diversity: New Approaches and Instruments in Europe and the US

    15th August 09

    Media, Culture & Society published an article by Natascha Just. The article describes and discusses new methods and instruments for measuring media concentration.

     

    Just, Natascha (2009): Measuring media concentration and diversity: New approaches in Europe and the USA. In: Media, Culture & Society, 31(1), 97-117

     

    Abstract: Debates on media concentration and the appropriate way to handle it are not coming to an end. This article stresses the dual character of media goods, the underlying ideological ideals, and the attendant institutional setting as sources of value conflict in communications policy making. It discusses this value conflict and gives examples of where it surfaces and how it is confronted. It is particularly evident in cases of media concentration. Newly introduced communications laws and policies within Europe and the US aim to reduce (ownership) regulation, promote competition and cope with the challenges posed by convergence. This quest is coupled in part with protections of media pluralism through custom-developed indices for measuring concentration in media markets and tests for assessing media plurality in merger cases. The article describes and discusses these new methods and instruments as novel but imperfect attempts by policy makers to respond to the various challenges in communications such as value conflict, convergence, the need for empirical proof and claims for non-economic ways of assessing media diversity. It concludes by stressing the need to re-emphasize normative claims as essential guiding elements of communications policy making. Keywords: communications policy, Europe, measurement, media concentration, value conflict, US

  • Fall courses online

    17th July 09

    The handbook for courses for next semester has been published. IPMZ's division on Mediachange & Innovation will be offering the following two courses:

     

    1. SP 1 Forschungsseminar, Medienwandel - Gesellschaftswandel: Merkmale, Thesen und empirische Evidenz
    2. «Rundfunk» im Lichte des aktuellen Medienwandels

  • New Media & Society's Current Issue features Article by Michael Latzer

    16th July 09

    Are ICT innovations radical and disruptive? This is question is brought forward by Michael Latzer’s newest article in News Media & Society’s June edition.

     

    New Media & Society CoverInformation and communication technology innovations (ICT) are considered to be of central importance to social and economic developments. Various innovation theories offer classifications to predict and assess their impact. This article reviews the usefulness of selected approaches and their application in the convergent communications sector. It focuses on the notion of disruption, the comparatively new distinction between disruptive and sustaining innovations, and examines how it is related to other innovation-theoretical typologies. According to the literature, there is a high frequency of disruptive changes in the field of internet protocol-based innovations in combination with wireless technology. A closer analysis reveals that these classifications and assessments not only differ in detail but are even contradictory. The article explains these differences by highlighting delicate choices that have to be taken by analysts applying the disruption concept. It argues that its applicability is comparatively low in the convergent communications sector and generalizations of single-firm assessments are hardly valid.

    More

    New Media & Society – Official Website
    New Media & Society - Information and communication technology innovations: radical and disruptive?
    More information in our publication’s section