The Political Communication of Regulatory Agencies: Between Legitimacy Management and New Governance

Following liberalization, regulatory agencies have become key actors of policy-making in broadcasting and telecommunications across Europe. Despite the fact that political communication is an integral part of politics, previous political communication and communication policy research largely ignored the communication of these regulators. On the one hand, communication can be conceptualized as a means to obtain organizational legitimacy. In the view of new sociological institutionalism, regulators’ communication is at the same time influenced by institutional environments (e.g. mediatization) and a strategic devise used to manipulate perceptions of a regulator’s activities and performance. On the other hand, communication can be viewed as a new form of governance. Communicating with the regulated industries is then seen as an alternative to command and control regulation.

Dr. Manuel Puppis is a senior research and teaching associate and the managing director of the division “Media & Politics” at the University of Zurich’s Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research (IPMZ).