WHAT is the Media Policy Planner?
The Media Policy Planner is a resource designed to help you keep track of opportunities to contribute to and influence media policy making processes and facilitate further collaboration between academics and civil society groups or other stakeholders. It includes:
Calendars with events, deadlines and other information about the timing of current media policy processes at the UK and EU levels.
A Directory of individual experts and organisations doing research relevant to the topics that policymakers are currently wrestling with and stakeholders are debating.
Resources in the form of our “Idiot’s Guides” on recent media policy topics, our policy briefs, and our rich archive of blog posts.
WHY a Policy Planner?
Media and communications policy often involves big business, industry stakeholders in the telecoms sector, or creative industries who can afford to have strong voices in London and Brussels. Policymakers are struggling with limited budgets to commission or procure research and evidence to help them make tough decisions about the future of the communications industries. At stake are not just economic interests, but democratic and cultural interests of the UK and Europe’s citizens. Academics who might be able to contribute useful evidence are often not aware of what’s happening in policy processes and how and when to engage. Civil society groups often have their fingers on the pulse of the process and want to influence policy, but lack the resources to conduct research or find evidence that supports their causes. The Media Policy Planner is designed to help level the playing field and make information about the timing of policy making and access to evidence and expertise available to everyone.
WHO We Are?
This free policy engagement resource is maintained by the LSE Media Policy Project (MPP), which is housed in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The LSE MPP does not take a position on the issues covered, but attempts to identify opportunities for anyone interested to take part in policy debates and contribute to policy making, as well as identify researchers whose work relates to topics being debated so as to facilitate communication and collaboration.
The Media Policy Planner is made possible by a grant from the Knowledge Exchange of the HEIF at LSE (HEIF5) and is also supported by the Open Society Foundation. The MPP Director is Damian Tambini and the Research Officer is Sally Broughton Micova, who are supported by Research Assistant Jessica Mason and an enthusiastic and dedicated group of temporary research assistants and interns.
The Members of the LSE MPP Advisory Group as of May 2014 are:
Monica Arino, Ofcom
Charlie Beckett, LSE Department of Media and Communications
Colette Bowe
Eddie Copeland, Policy Exchange
Nick Couldry, LSE Department of Media and Communications
Jamie Cowling, Department of Transport
Tony Danker, The Guardian
Claire Enders, Enders Analysis
Jane Humphreys, DCMS
Jim Killock, Open Rights Group
Sonia Livingstone, LSE Department of Media and Communications
Simon Milner, Facebook
Nick Pearce, IPPR
James Purnell, BBC
Philip Schlesinger, University of Glasgow
Andrew Scott, LSE Department of Law
Mark Thompson, Open Society Foundation
Jane Tinkler, LSE Public Policy Group
Peggy Valcke, Catholic University of Leuven
