Media and Cultural Policy in the Enlarged European Union

In 2004, the European Union welcomed 10 new nations through a rigorous process of assessment and negotiation. A significant part of this convergence has been to redesign the internal media markets to a model accepted and prescribed by the European Union. In this special issue of Trends in Communication, Guest Editors Peter Flood and Deirdre Kevin examine the structural fundamentals of the media market prescribed by the EU, as influenced by the acceding and candidate states. In the past 15 years, the European media model has undergone a shift from characteristically tight regulation and strong, dominant public media, to deregulation. Media and Cultural Policy in the Enlarged European Union brings to light the absence of a coherent media policy, and the consequent challenges faced by the EU. The articles in this work address the strategies available to the European media, examining the current media market model and its overall effectiveness and purpose.