Salcedo Maldonado, J.L., Department of Political Science and Public Law, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona UAB, Spain
Current regulations and policy initiatives concerning copyright and the Internet use of content in multiple countries have generated a strong lobby process which includes a media campaign between the different agents who consider these regulations essential for their interests. The entertainment industry argues that some uses of new technologies are a risk for their business and because of that they lobby for strong policies against piracy and the free use of content by search engines. The Internet Service Providers (ISP) do not want to assume the supervision cost of internet users' behaviour although they would like to participate in the profits of the digital content business. Activists believe that regulation proposals and policies threaten fundamental rights such as personal privacy, freedom of speech, free circulation of information and knowledge as well as the right of Internet access.
In this paper focus our attention in the case of UK and Spain and the media visibility of actors who are part of the conflict. We assess if different sides in the conflict have the same chance to have media visibility and finally if their statement is being followed by the public opinion. We intend to answer these questions drawing upon a content analysis of news and blogs and also doing hyperlinks analysis of the conflict to identify the visibility level of the diverse agents on the Web. Depending on the agents profile and on the countries that we analyze, we find different visibility levels on the multiple spheres. (News, blogs and the Web)
