Regulations for access to the information society. Summary

Access to the information society takes place on different levels and includes the technical access of users to the internet, but also the ability of people to deal with this medium and to integrate it into daily media use and everyday routines. The access of providers of information and content to the internet or to certain internet platforms is also relevant in this context.
However, the internet is not the only medium of social introspection, information and communication and enabling social participation, despite its further increasing spread: Press, radio and television are also media of access to the information society. Their offers of use and modes of use are changing more and more, and conventional demarcations are becoming blurred: One can watch television with a mobile phone, make phone calls with a computer, surf the internet via a cable connection, read the newspaper on an e-book reader, and programme the radio programme according to individual taste.
These developments present legislators with the challenge of keeping pace with new types of hybrid offerings, devices and modes of use in media and telecommunications regulation and adapting regulation accordingly. ... mehrThe goal of media and network policy is to eliminate barriers for media innovations and at the same time not to lose sight of the normative aspects of provider and opinion diversity in an increasingly convergent media world.
Against this background - at the suggestion of the Bundestag Committee on Economics and Technology - the responsible Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment commissioned the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag (TAB) to work on this topic and to produce the present report.
In the broadest sense, this report is about the connection between media innovations and media regulation. The central questions are: What role do governmental, regulatory requirements and measures play in a media world that is increasingly characterised by convergence, and in which the internet is becoming more and more important? What are the principle design potentials and options for politics? How can the innovation-theoretical and practical potentials of the new media be brought to fruition?
With regard to the overarching theme of access, three topics have been identified as particularly relevant, which consequently run through the entire report: These are the topics of broadband, convergence and leading media. For the topic "broadband", a 6-country comparison was carried out in order to show the spectrum of state strategies in supporting network expansion and the spread of the internet among the population. The topics "convergence" and "leading media" were dealt with respectively in the presentation of the development dynamics in the media genres of press, broadcasting and internet.