Implement harmonised media regulatory framework-Mission impossible?
There is no doubt that people now spend far more time on various digital platforms and social media than on traditional media businesses such as television, radio and magazines. However, the traditional media business is facing more stringent advertising regulate and requirements because of its comprehensive advertising content supervision system. Taking Australia as an example, ACCC is responsible for the supervision of advertising content delivery and production. According to their report, they are purposed to make a broader reform to create a coherent, platform-neutral legal framework that covers both online and offline delivery of media content to Australian consumers, in order to create a level playing field that promotes competition in Australian media and advertising markets. Nevertheless, unified supervision of digital platforms is extremely difficult, and this measure will face huge challenges.
First of all, the production cost and difficulty of regulate for advertisers to place advertisements on different channels lead to inconsistencies in the regulate content. Taking TV commercials as an example, the cost of shooting a 15-second TVC may be cost over million Australian dollars, and it must go through many layers of regulation before it can be finally broadcast on TV channels. However, advertising on digital platforms, such as Twitter and Instagram, may be as simple as posting a poster or picture, with the narrative of the advertisement, it is already a complete advertisement. It is difficult for these two completely different advertising methods to have the same media regulatory framework, because it is very simple to place advertisements on digital platforms, and the number of advertisements placed on digital platforms every year is also very large. The workload will consume a lot of manpower and material resources, and it is difficult to formulate uniform review standards, especially in the case of inconsistent regulatory standards for advertising content in various industries. Advertisements on many digital platforms can be published simply by passing the AANA code, and it is difficult to determine whether it has created an unfair advertising competition environment.
Another reason why I think it is difficult to unify the formulation of media regulation is the flexibility and universality of digital media platforms. Even if people are still debating whether the digital platform is a public good of economics, it is still undeniable that after entering the Web 2.0 era, the ability of users to publish content has been strengthened. Today’s advertisers are more dependent on user-generated content, and they will attract users to publish content related to their products, or find influencers to promote campaigns, so as to achieve the effect of advertising. Then these UGCs generated by users are difficult to be really regulated, because how can government regulators regulate whether the content posted by users randomly meets the advertising standards or not, which sounds almost impossible.