Journal of Digital Media & Policy - Current Issue

Information and communication technology is reshaping the world faster than ever. In parallel with the growth of content production and publishing tools, the volume of digital content has increased drastically. Malaysian authorities have established and authorized Content Forum to create a Content Code for imposing self-regulating standards on networked content. The Content Code served as the guiding principle for content creators in managing their content better. Industry players were early adopters of the Content Code. However, there has not been a strong awareness of the Content Code amongst the public. This research aimed to provide insights into the extent concerning how Malaysians are empowered in making an informed selection when consuming content across multiple screens and platforms. Thus, this research conducted focus group discussions and questionnaire distribution to fill this gap. The results showed that most people are aware of the Content Code, but not in detail. Instead, they have been selecting content intuitively based on their common sense and general knowledge. The findings of this study can provide insights to the authorities in increasing the awareness of Malaysians to exercise informed content selection when consuming networked content, therefore increasing the welfare of internet users.

Media managers are facing a variety of profound and disruptive challenges generated by the impact of digitization and platformization on the production, distribution and consumption of media goods. Interestingly, platforms provide users with the opportunity to become providers of information (‘produsers’). The technological ecology requires publishing organizations to constantly rethink and adjust their competitive strategies and business models to achieve financial sustainability. Based on interviews with media industry players, this article intends to understand Portuguese newspaper companies’ funding models, business challenges in a pre-pandemic period, and how managers were reacting and adapting their practices. This study has found that the companies demonstrated the predominant implementation of management practices aimed at exploring mixed revenue sources – that is, through the traditional activity of selling advertising and newspapers and the support of paper and the sale of digital advertising content. Companies where the main source of revenue came from a mixed-model ended up, for the most part, investing more, or having more participation, in digital, with a few exceptions.

The twenty-first century saw the rapid rise of new media, increasing its share within the media mix and becoming a crucial platform for democratic debate and cultural consumption. Meanwhile, provisions related to the media in the European Charter for Regional or Minority languages merely refer to traditional forms of media. This article tries to answer the question whether the Charter with its unchanged provisions can continue to fulfil its function of protecting endangered languages, integrating the different forms of new media for the fulfilment member states’ obligations. Based on an analysis of the most recent monitoring reports of the Charter’s Committee of Experts, this research arrives at the conclusion that the Charter is indeed fit for the digital age, with both traditional and new media coming to play an important role in protecting and promoting minority and regional languages.

This article addresses the link between the rise of global streaming and the significance of media franchises by analysing the implementation of different strategies of control and development of media franchises employed by four of the main video streaming platforms worldwide: Disney+, Max, Prime Video and Netflix. The article identifies and discusses three different strategies regarding the control and development of media franchises in streaming platforms. The expansion strategy seeks to enlarge well-established franchises through streaming releases. While the incorporation strategy involves acquiring entire studios or adaptation rights to integrate already-developed franchises into a streaming service’s catalogue. Finally, the creation strategy aims to develop and consolidate franchises from the outset with the purpose of endowing a streaming platform with its own intellectual property. I conclude that the conjunction between global streaming and media franchises reveals the economic and cultural significance that both elements represent for the media industry. Through various strategies of control and development, such as those identified in this article, streaming platforms are established as an important medium for the exploitation of media franchises.

This article examines the role of public financiers in the context of digital distribution and the increased involvement of global streamers in financing local content. Through a comparative analysis, it explores how screen policy mixes aimed at funding fiction and animation films and series in two small European markets, Denmark and Flanders, adapt to and influence the transnational orientation in response to globalization and the rise of online distribution. Based on interviews in Denmark and Flanders combined with data analysis, the article shows that in the context of rising production budgets, transnational production and intense international competition, screen agencies and other public financiers have also become more transnationally oriented. Both in Flanders and Denmark, screen agencies put increased emphasis on enabling international financing and distribution opportunities for fiction and animation films and series. How to regulate and co-finance with global streamers has become an important question for policy stakeholders. As echoed in the interviews, producers in Flanders and Denmark agree that outward-looking policies for attracting commercial financing are becoming more important for strengthening the financing base of local works. It is significant to outline that policies fostering transnational financing and distribution do not stand in opposition to cultural protectionism. For example, investment obligations for global streamers can have the dual function of safeguarding the production ecology while promoting transnational sale and distribution. In smaller markets, such as Denmark and Flanders, aligning policy tools is essential, given that public funding for fiction and animation is crucial lever for achieving ambitious budgets and attracting private financing.

Review of: Digital Media Regulation within the European Union: A Framework for a New Media Order, Judit Bayer (2024)

Baden-Baden: Nomos Publishing, 383 pp.,

ISBN 978-3-75601-617-4, p/bk and e-book, €94.00