Assessing Policy I: Stakeholder Analysis

Abstract

Stakeholder analysis approaches policy-making as involving the engagement of organized and competing interests, and reconciling these competing interests toward shared goals through dialogue and deliberation. The role of policy-makers in this framework is to act as facilitators, who bring their own expertise to the deliberations, and can steer these processes toward outcomes that can achieve stakeholder consensus. This chapter identifies contexts in which stakeholder approaches are likely to be adopted, and the importance of voice in such processes, particularly for non-elite interests. It also considers the future of stakeholder analysis in media policy, given the dramatic changes associated with the digital transformation of the media industries.