Livingstone, S., Lunt, P. & Miller, L. (2007) Citizens and Consumers: Discursive debates during and after the Communications Act 2003. Media, Culture &
Society, 29(4): 613 – 638.
Citizens and Consumers:
Discursive debates during and after the Communications Act 2003
Sonia Livingstone, London School of Economics and Political Science Peter Lunt and Laura Miller, Brunel University
Contact details Professor Sonia Livingstone
Department of Media and Communications London School of Economics and Political Science
Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK t +44 (0) 20 7955 7710
f +44 (0) 20 7955 7248 e s.livingstone@lse.ac.uk
Acknowledgements
This paper reports on a research project, The Public Understanding of Regulation,
funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as part of the ‗Risk in
Social Contexts‘ Network (RES-336-25-0001) (http://www.kent.ac.uk/scarr/). The
authors thank John Roberts, Richard Collins and Don Redding for their comments on
an earlier draft of this paper.
Citizens and Consumers:
Discursive debates during and after the Communications Act 2003
Abstract
The regulation of media and communications in the UK has recently been subject to reform resulting in the creation of the Office of Communications (Ofcom). This statutory body, established by an Act of Parliament, is a new, sector wide regulator, protecting the interests of what has been termed the ‗citizen-consumer‘. This article charts the discursive shifts that occurred during the passage of the Communications Act through Parliament and in the initial stages of its implementation to understand how and why the term ‗citizen-consumer‘ came to lie at the heart of the new regulator‘s mission. By critically analysing the various alignments of ‗citizen‘ and
‗consumer‘ interests within the debates, the underlying struggles over the formulation of power, responsibility and duties for the new regulator and for other stakeholders – industry, government and public – are identified. The article concludes by suggesting that the legacy of these debates is that the regulatory provisions in place to further the
‗citizen interest‘ are inherently dilemmatic.
‘