Convergence Revisited: Toward a Modified Pattern of Communications Governance

2009

Michael Latzer

In: Convergence – The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 15(4), 411-426

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.