This booklet provides the reader with an extensive summary of a Dutch report on the future of media policy, published earlier in 2005, by the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy (known as WRR in Dutch). The WRR is an independent advisory body, which regularly publishes reports. They seek to propose a critical, future-oriented reappraisal of the assumptions that guide current policy strategies of the Dutch government (WRR 2005).

The Council's research on future media policy has sparked off intense debate within the Netherlands. Many countries are currently starting a similar process: digitalisation and economic and technical forms of convergence are changing the media landscape all over the world. In all countries, traditional government policies that seek to pursue democratic values such as pluralism and accessibility in the media are challenged by new developments that are transforming the media landscape at great pace. These transformations are provoking many uncertainties: empirical research and future-oriented reflection on what governments should and can do to support the further development as well as the democratic nature of the media is one of the ways to cope with these uncertainties.

The Council believes that the report it has published may also be relevant for policymakers in other parts of the world. Therefore, since the bulk of the WRR findings appeared in the Dutch language, the Council has decided to publish this synopsis in English. This version gives an overview of the global issues at stake – and the solutions suggested by the WRR.

Media policy, in particular, urgently needs such a future-oriented reappraisal of the current paradigm. As the report shows, the current paradigm is highly medium-oriented. Policymakers pay separate attention to the press, radio and television, the Internet and so on. Major trends that affect the media landscape seriously challenge this paradigm. These include not only digitalisation but also convergence of media infrastructures, including those normally considered to be in the telecommunications sector. Traditional concerns and public values (like accessibility) will have to be safeguarded, for the media landscape is changing rapidly as a result of new technologies. Traditional, medium-oriented policies are seriously challenged in a world where, for example, many newspapers are shifting their focus to the Internet. Traditional business models, value chains, regulatory regimes and jurisdictions are all challenged by a new ‘digital logic’.