An inquiry into media ownership and the way people access news has been launched by the House of Lords Communications Committee.

It will look at changes in the way people access news and how it is provided, and how contracted media ownership affects the balance and diversity of news in a democracy. It is now seeking evidence from interested parties.

It will then go on to consider the concentration of media ownership, cross media ownership and the regulation framework.

Lord Fowler, a former journalist and regional newspaper group chairman, is chair of the House of Lords Communications Committee.

He said: "There has been an increasing concentration of ownership in the media. We want to examine if this has had an effect upon news provision.

"There are important public interest factors here. In a democracy it is vital to have as wide a diversity of news as possible.

"There has been very little work investigating the impact of ownership on editorial priorities such as fairness, accuracy and impartiality.

"It is important to know what influence ownership has in order to make informed decisions on media regulation."

The Committee is particularly seeking evidence on how and why the agendas of news providers have changed, and how the content of news programmes and newspapers have altered over the years.

It is also asking how the way that people access the news is changing, as well as the process of news gathering.

It addition it will consider the impact of the concentration of media ownership on the balance and diversity of opinion seen in the news. It will ask if ownership has an impact on editorial priorities and on news values such as fairness, accuracy and impartiality.

The deadline for submitting written evidence for the first part of the inquiry is September 3.

The Committee will then review the evidence and ask for information on the concentration of media ownership, on cross-media ownership and on the regulation of media ownership.