ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the ways in which public policies and associative initiatives intended to support media and cultural work in protest cultures have been designed and implemented. It explains some of the key regulatory initiatives, mechanisms and policies relating to media and cultural production and organisation in protest cultures, particularly focusing on the British and German contexts. Historically, media policies in some cases have paid little attention to media and cultural actors in protest cultures. The aim of these cultural initiatives was to promote access to and enhance greater participation in cultural production with a view to facilitating self-development and social cohesion. From the mid-1980s through to the 1990s, the wider political economy of the Thatcherite and successive Conservative governments impacted cultural policy in a way that fostered and enforced the transition from the reliance on public subsidy to the business sponsorship of the arts.
