The political power of media in UK (12/15/2009)
(...) One objective of this article, however, is to demonstrate that despite demonstrable regional variance in creative industry agendas and outcomes, "national institutions" and the knowledges they produce do still matter." More specifically, I suggest, the metaphorical geography represented by the "Mapping Document" is interesting and important not only for what it allows (the mobilization and operationalization of power) but for what it potentially disguises or (to use the word favored by Matthew Sparke) "dissembles": the consequential local geographies that shape and make creativity and its content in the first place.. (...)

Political power and media go hand in hand (12/15/2009)
(...) " For another thing, interpreting the removal of specific regulatory ordinances as a sign of a moderation of power would, I argue, be to fundamentally misunderstand the nature of the power relations in play here. This latter suggestion requires careful amplification. Often power is not just, or not even mainly, about handing down dictates and expecting and enforcing observance. (...)

Today power is about persuasion (12/15/2009)
(...) What matters is that Ofcom's proposals are backed by a model: a model framed by an expert advisory panel and, in its level of methodological sophistication, entirely unintelligible to (not to mention contestable by) almost everybody concerned with the review. The content and assumptions of the model are less significant than the fact that there is a model that can be used for reference, support, justification-and even comfort. This, it strikes me, is precisely what Ted Porter so fittingly calls "trust in numbers. (...)

Episodic manifestations of power (12/15/2009)
(...) Ofcom is fully accountable to Parliament through various Parliamentary Committees and the National Audit Office. Indeed if Ofcom, as a disciplinary regime, fails to deliver adequate "performance" and demonstrate acceptable standards against its various duties and regulatory principles, then it is quite feasible for the government to intervene and to establish a new disciplinary regime-with, undoubtedly, its own alternative experts and truths. Hence Richard Collins's pertinent observation that where the UK media sector is concerned, "much power still resides with government. (...)