Actors and Interactions in Global Communication Governance: the Heuristic Potential of a Network Approach

This chapter addresses the policy implications of this complexity and suggests a specific standpoint through which it can be examined, theorized and empirically explored. We start by briefly addressing the theoretical and empirical shortcomings of a concept that has recently characterized much of the discourse surrounding media and communication policies: multi-stakeholderism. We contend that this concept is inadequate in that it does not enable us to grasp the essence of GCG as a domain. We do this by offering examples from the GCG field to show how a diversity of actors, combined with dynamics of processes, produce uncertainty and complexity at different levels that must be properly investigated. We then discuss why a network approach to the study of GCG may prove fruitful towards a better understanding of how GCG is structured. Using a short review of former applications of a network approach to governing mechanisms, we outline the heuristic potential of this approach. Finally, we bring our theoretical reflection one step further and propose that in order to empirically investigate the global networked governance of communication, it may be useful to look at different kinds of (complementary) networks through appropriate methodologies. In our concluding remarks, we explore directions in which the proposed theoretical-methodological framework could be applied.