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Our principal questions for exploration are
a) What types of risks do the public face? b) What is the
role of regulation?
c)
How are the public (consumers, citizens, viewers) represented
and accounted for by regulators in planning processes?
d)
How are key stakeholders responding to the activities and
policies put forward by the regulators?
e)
How does the new culture of regulation foster opportunities for
public engagement and participation?
Project design and methods
The relations between how regulatory regimes represent the
public and how the public understands regulation are complex.
The project design involves two parallel case studies for each
regulator. Each case study includes three empirical phases in
order to permit comparison across regulatory domains: detailed
analysis of policy documents and media reports; interviews with
key stakeholders; and focus groups with the public. These are
designed to explore the interrelationships among the regulators,
the media and the public, with the media included because it is
they who communicate information about regulation within the
public sphere and represent public concern and discussion.
Phase I: Analysis of documents
This phase involves detailed analyses of policy and consultation
documents and media coverage, in order to map out how the
financial service and communications regulators represent the
public within strategic documents and how they include them in
their planning processes. Media reports will be analysed also to
capture the critical public discussion of the new regulators,
government and industry players, to understand how regulatory
policy is mediated in the public sphere.
Phase II: Interviews with regulators and stakeholders
Interviews will be held with some 30 key actors from a variety of
vantage points across the financial service and communications
sectors (e.g. consumer and industry representatives, media and
telecommunications professionals and legal representatives), as
well other stakeholders and experts participating in the
evolving regulatory frameworks. How do these key actors
understand the very role of regulation itself? How do they
conceptualise the public (consumers, citizens, viewers)? Do they
share common assumptions about for example, the types of
education and awareness campaigns that would suit the needs of
the public?
Phase III: Focus groups with the public
A series of focus group discussions will be held with members of
the public. The format of the discussions will explore: What
current knowledge or direct experiences does the public have in
relation to the new forms of regulation? How do they make sense
of the mediated information they receive? How prominent do they
envisage the potential risks to be as part of their day-to-day
lives? What types of meanings do they attach to these types of
risks? How would they anticipate and plan for them? To what
extent have regulatory activities enabled the public to
participate in making informed choices and decisions?
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