{"title":"Regulatory Annexation: Extending Broadcast Media Regulation to Social Media and Internet Content","authors":"V. Obia","doi":"10.1080/10811680.2023.2206382","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article considers the regulation of social media usage in Nigeria and Africa, drawing from ideas on critical political economy, securitization, and state–citizen distrust. Using a methodology that combines policy analysis, case studies, and qualitative reading of social media texts, it introduces for the first time the concept of regulatory annexation. This is the extension of standards, principles, and sanctions originally meant for one particular frame of reference to another. I establish the concept by drawing from case studies on broadcast media regulation to show that this is being mapped onto the emerging regulation of social media and Internet content in what I describe as the politics of regulation. I argue that regulatory annexation bears significant implications for the control of the entire media architecture and our understanding of new media regulation in the wider sense, both now and in the future.","PeriodicalId":42622,"journal":{"name":"Communication Law and Policy","volume":"28 1","pages":"99 - 123"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Communication Law and Policy","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10811680.2023.2206382","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"LAW","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract This article considers the regulation of social media usage in Nigeria and Africa, drawing from ideas on critical political economy, securitization, and state–citizen distrust. Using a methodology that combines policy analysis, case studies, and qualitative reading of social media texts, it introduces for the first time the concept of regulatory annexation. This is the extension of standards, principles, and sanctions originally meant for one particular frame of reference to another. I establish the concept by drawing from case studies on broadcast media regulation to show that this is being mapped onto the emerging regulation of social media and Internet content in what I describe as the politics of regulation. I argue that regulatory annexation bears significant implications for the control of the entire media architecture and our understanding of new media regulation in the wider sense, both now and in the future.
期刊介绍:
The societal, cultural, economic and political dimensions of communication, including the freedoms of speech and press, are undergoing dramatic global changes. The convergence of the mass media, telecommunications, and computers has raised important questions reflected in analyses of modern communication law, policy, and regulation. Serving as a forum for discussions of these continuing and emerging questions, Communication Law and Policy considers traditional and contemporary problems of freedom of expression and dissemination, including theoretical, conceptual and methodological issues inherent in the special conditions presented by new media and information technologies.