ABSTRACT
In the development of modern states, the media's role has been fundamental, as the organisation of national interests was their central function. From this viewpoint, the media and its pivotal role in the construction of “imagined communities” can be compared with other major nation-building institutions, such as the education system, churches, national army and civil service. These can be characterised as epistemic institutions, creating and reproducing a form of knowledge that is centrally constructed around national concepts and symbols. When thinking how to revitalise democracy and create conditions for a new, transnational political agency, we have to address the ways and means by which the media are regulated today. If we accept the idea that informed and active citizenship is at the core of functioning democracy, we need to ask the role of the media in its production. The problem is that all criteria promoting and providing democratic citizenship are already stipulated in a number of international agreements and conventions as well as in national constitutions; what is missing is a binding global regulatory framework that would guarantee that they are not only formally adapted to national and international laws, but also enforced in practice.
