ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the theories of regulation, the definition of public interest in communication and introduces the methodological distinction – process and product regulation – as an analytical tool to identify and evaluate the regulation of British broadcasting and television advertising in the deregulation/reregulation and liberalisation era. It introduces the twenty-first century convergence vision of info-com policy, info-com public interest principles and definition, the regulatory model product and process regulation, the infocom sectors and the info-com industry which are likely to contribute to the emergence of the new 'info-communication society'. Public interest theory, oldest of the theoretical perspectives on government regulation of private business, holds that 'regulation is established in response to the conflict between private corporations and the general public. A number of theorists from the right, such as Paul MacAvoy, Eugene Bardach and Robert Kagan, have used organisational theory to provide a counterbalance to the anti-industry standpoint of capture-type critiques.
