Concept Of Cultural Citizenship

Cultural citizenship and cultural rights
The concept of cultural citizenship has entered media policy discourse from the latter part of the 20th century and has been succinctly defined by Toby Miller as the right to 'know and speak' (Miller, 2006, pp35). To further elaborate on this, cultural citizenship differs from mono-cultural citizenship in its recognition of the validity of different cultural formations that are encapsulated within state boundaries, and guarantees their legitimacy. Cultural citizenship can be seen as a further addition to TH Marshall’s characterisation of citizenship as a cohort of political, civil and social rights. If political citizenship granted rights for participation and inclusion in the process of exercising power

Successive UK governments have followed marketising strategies in relation to the media sector, seeking to introduce a general market system, favourable to corporate interests and characterised by competition-led industrial policy (Freedman, 2002). This new system is then accompanied by re-regulation. The UK has thus been a net beneficiary of an open market approach to the development of international trade in cultural goods, pursuing a liberalising agenda and supporting what have been labelled liberalist interventions and corporate agendas in EU media policy . In general it can be observed that the orientation of the UK media policy agenda is broadly commensurate with other influential blocks within the EU. Irish governments, on the other hand, have been less consistent in their approach displaying at times a dirigiste or interventionist approach and, following a change of government in 1997, what can be described as laissez faire policy adherence followed by reactive defensiveness. As such, the UK along with the other large audio visual markets can be described, vis-à-vis its influence and voice, as a media policy pathfinder, whereas Ireland, in latter years, has largely been a media policy path follower (Webster and Robins, 1999). Thus the UK policy paradigms of neo-liberalism and creative industry growth have had significant impact in the institution of a new

Yet, because it is instituted under conditions of subsidiarity, it is likely that it will be invoked for largely national cultural reasons. There is however a role for national public broadcasters to play in reflectively incorporating progressive dimensions to its cultural policy and providing the basis for a re-thinking of what we mean when we discuss questions of the national and the public. Likewise, if events of national importance are to be sensitive to non-nationally popular cultural pursuits there is a necessity for groupings to apply pressure on government via lobbying and media campaigns. In the following case studies we will illustrate the larger dynamics at work whilst also drawing attention to the position of governments and the effectiveness of public pressure in relation to the invocation of Article