Paper presented to Communications and Community, 62nd International Communications Association Annual Conference, Phoenix, AZ, USA, May 24-28, 2012

1. Globalization, Media Policy
and Regulatory Design:
Rethinking the Australian
Media Classification Scheme
Paper presented to Communications and Community,
62nd International Communications Association Annual
Conference, Phoenix, AZ, USA
Professor Terry Flew, Creative Industries Faculty
Queensland University of Technology
Brisbane, Australia

2. Does economic globalization weaken
nation-states?
• New Left Review debates of the 1970s
• Globalization literature: yes
– Large transnational corporations have effectively surpassed the
jurisdiction and authority of nation-states … the concept of
national sovereignty is losing its effectiveness … [as]
government and politics come to be completely integrated into
the system of transnational command (Michael Hardt and
Antonio Negri, Empire (2000), pp. 306, 307).
• Critics
– East Asian developmental states
– Economic geography of global corporations
– How global are media corporations?

3. Australian media inquiries 2011-2012
• Convergence Review
• Review of the National Classification Scheme
• Independent Media Inquiry (Finkelstein Report)
• National Cultural Policy
• National Broadband Network (NBN) as a
significant contextual factor

4. Background to the National Classification
Scheme Review
• Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) review of
Censorship and Classification (1991)
• Rapid pace of technological change and community
uptake of new media technologies
• Community needs and expectations in an evolving
technological environment
• ALRC given Terms of Reference Feb 2011 – I was
seconded from QUT to head inquiry May 2011 – final
report tabled in Parliament March 2012

5. Terms of Reference
Consider the extent to which
• the Classification (Publications, Films and
Computer Games) Act 1995;
• State and Territory enforcement legislation;
• Schedules 5 and 7 of the Broadcasting Services
Act 1992; and
• the Intergovernmental Agreement on Censorship
and related laws
continue to provide an effective framework for the
classification of media content in Australia
The Hon R McClelland MP
Attorney-General

7. Situating Media Classification
• Form of media content policy – related to community
standards and consumer information
• Media classification a combination of:
– Legislation based on underlying principles (media law &
policy);
– activities of relevant agencies (media regulation);
– informal norms and self-regulation (media governance)
• Media classification as a form of governmentality – „a
diverse range of regulatory practices by which social control
is sought through the deployment of devices for gathering
intelligence, establishing standards, applying categories and
monitoring effects, as well as enforcement‟ (Livingstone et.
al., 2007, p. 615).

8. Australian context
• No Constitutional guarantee of free speech
• Move from censorship to classification from late 1960s
onwards – very little content is actually banned (changes
in Internet context)
• Elements of fragmentation
– States and Commonwealth (failure to reach agreement on
“X” rating)
– Government departments: Attorney-General‟s Dept. and
Communications
– Broadcasting laws and classification laws

9. Context of Media Convergence
1. Increased access to high-speed broadband
networks
2. Digitisation of media products and services
3. Convergence of media platforms and services
4. Globalisation of media platforms, content and
services
5. Acceleration of innovation
6. Rise of user-created content
7. Greater media user empowerment
8. Blurring of public/private and age-based
distinctions

10. Verticals and horizontals

11. ALRC Recommendations
• Classification—Content Regulation and Convergent Media
(ALRC Report 118 – Feb. 2012)
• Need for platform neutrality in future regulation –
separation of content/platforms
• Extending industry co-regulation based on approved
codes overseen by a convergent regulator
• Focus of online content regulation on restricting access to
adult content
• Narrowing scope of current Refused Classification (RC)
category to Prohibited content
• Further research into community expectations around
access to media content

12. Globalization and media content
regulations
• Shift from tangible media to digital media - content is typically
not nationally-based; is sourced, distributed and accessed
globally; and is available in such volumes that government
pre-classification no longer possible
• Regulations that are platform-based and tied to tangible
media apply to ever-diminishing proportion of total media
content
• Limits to traditional command-and-control approaches to
media policy and regulation – need to engage not only
content providers by media users
• Parity of regulatory treatment between traditional and
emergent media platforms, and local and offshore media
content providers

13. Globalization and media content
regulations
1. The vast array of digital content, from movies and TV
programs to apps and mobile games, distributed and
purchased from international platforms such as Apple‟s
iTunes Store and Google Market;
2. The huge volume of media content, much of it user-
generated, that is distributed from social media
platforms such as YouTube and Facebook;
3. The one trillion-plus URLs that exist on the World Wide
Web.

14. Approaches taken in ALRC Review
• Only limited demand for classification below certain
threshold levels – considerable scope for industry
innovation in lower-level classification
• Deeming international standards to apply in Australia
e.g. ESRB and PEGI schemes for computer
games, Apple and Google content guidelines?
• Narrowing scope of prohibited online content to be more
in lines with international norms (e.g. Interpol “blacklist”)