Media Policy for the Digital Age
A future-oriented media policy calls for a new, functional approach because the Dutch media landscape is changing rapidly due to technological developments in particular. In that context, a European media policy will eventually become essential, the WRR says in its report Media Policy for the Digital Age (Report no. 71, 2005).
Developments in the media landscape
The Dutch media landscape is no longer confined to ‘Hilversum and the national press’. With the emergence of commercial radio and television, the Internet and the rapid internationalisation and commercialisation of media companies, it is changing rapidly and radically. Meanwhile, previously 'separate’ infrastructures, such as cable and telephone lines, are now competing for the right to transmit the explosively growing range of digital media products.
A functional approach
The government can respond to these developments with a functional approach. The WRR distinguishes six social functions, including news gathering, entertainment, art and culture. In the new approach, the emphasis would be on the social risks and public interests involved in relation to each function.