Vernacular Policymaking and the Cultural Turn in Media Policy Studies

Borrowing concepts from cultural studies, legal pluralism, interpretative policy analysis, and other areas, the author argues for an expanded media policy analysis that also considers unofficial, bottom-up, and “vernacular” media policy: the kinds of media policies that are formulated and enforced in a range of settings and by differently empowered policymakers, from parents restricting the media consumption of children to Internet pranksters regulating behavior online. Although this essay remains an initial conceptual statement, with research on particular case studies yet to be done, I argue that a better appreciation of the diverse sites and modes of media policymaking and their relationship to the official policy sphere will deepen our understanding of media policy.