The Handbook of Global Media and Communication Policy, First Edition. Edited by Robin Mansell and Marc Raboy. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2011 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Introduction In this introductory chapter, we locate “global media and communication policy” studies histori- cally, highlighting some of the key touchstones that have given rise to intense discussion in a vari- ety of policy arenas. These arenas are populated by heterogeneous actors – governments, firms, and civil society organizations – whose actions rever- berate through settings encompassing the local and the global. The consequences of these actions have major implications for the media and commu- nication industries and for all those whose lives are mediated by them. The significance of this policy field stems from the pervasive cultural, political, and economic implications of media and commu- nication. Our focus in this Handbook is primarily on the political framing of these debates, on their histories, and on their different articulations. Media and communication policy emerged as an identifiable field within the broader domain of Western media and communication studies in the 1950s. During this period, scholars were studying the relations between different types of media and com- munication and raising questions about economic and social development, mainly at the country level, and with an emphasis on tensions between autono- mous and dependent development paradigms. In the 1960s and 1970s, challenged by young, critical scholars and the postcolonial context, the field began to be characterized by comparative studies and the policy implications of unequal North–South communica- tion flows started to be examined. From the 1980s, there was increasing awareness that media and com- munication policy must be considered in reference to the transnational – as a level of policy debate and as a context – and to the role of nongovernmental actors. “Global” media and communication policy emerged as a field over an extended period and it did so in paral- lel with processes of technological and geopolitical change. In the 1990s, while tensions remained around development strategies, policy discussion started to focus on local or indigenous problems within a globalizing information society. In the media sphere, a key political touchstone became the con- testation over relationships between state and mar- ket and the obligations of the social welfare state (public service broadcasting (PSB) being a good example). These discussions intensified as digitali- zation of information and communication tech- nologies (ICTs) fostered convergence within the media and communication industries and policy encouraged a more commercial and diverse media. Debate focussed on market liberalization, culmi- nating in the 1995 G7 meeting where development objectives were framed as the achievement of 1 Introduction: Foundations of the Theory and Practice of Global Media and Communication Policy Robin Mansell and Marc Raboy Mansell_c01.indd 1 Mansell_c01.indd 1 2/19/2011 5:38:28 PM 2/19/2011 5:38:28 PM REVISED PROOF