RIDING19: Riding or Lashing the Waves: Regulating Media for Diversity in a Time of Uncertainty National Press Club Washington, DC, United States, May 24, 2019

A generation ago, the meaning of the term "mass media" was clear and direct: one-to-many means of communication. Over the past 20 years the term has been stretched to cover if not yet in name, a chaotic maze of broad and narrowcast media, local and global at the same time. Blogs can easily morph from a personal diary into a specialized magazine. Instant messaging tools like Whatsapp or Facebook Messenger can become instruments of mass mobilization.

Furthermore, as the means of communications changed, so did the genres they support. Blogging and vlogging, podcasting, screen capture videos, and game broadcasting, live broadcasting of events using mobile phones, or data visualizations and mapping are new types of journalism and para-journalism. Finally, the new mass media is nomadic. It refuses to be confined by national borders, laws, and regulations. While for many not desirable, for others not feasible, and for many others an unexpected gift, the difficulty of regulating and legislating for media in this day and age raises questions such as enforcement, relevance, co-regulation, controlling by standards and technologies, and so on. 

The "Riding or lashing the waves? Regulating Media in a time of Uncertainty" ICA pre-conference focuses on the regulatory and policy changes needed to stabilize the path from traditional to future forms of media. A core component of our conversation is an in-depth exploration of choices for regulating or deregulating media to ensure media pluralism and diversity. The umbrella question is “what are the regulatory, policy, and production rules that can make future media diverse, embracing pluralism of perspectives and ideas, user-focused and civically-responsible, while remaining profitable?”  

In other words, what legal frameworks, organizational innovations, self-regulation ideas or technologies can be or should not be used to maintain diversity and sustainability?

Submission Guidelines

We accept both extended abstracts and papers. Extended abstracts cannot be longer than 1500 words. Papers should be 3000 - 8000 words, not including references, figures, or abstract. References and formatting should comply with the latest APA style, especially for in-text citations and reference list. Papers should be submitted as PDFs in letter size, double space, serifed fonts (e.g., Times New Roman, Baskerville, Book Antiqua, etc.), 12 point.

List of Topics

We are interested in high-quality quantitative, qualitative, or theoretical papers in the fields of legal studies, communication, political science, sociology, or economics. Here follow some of the issues that could be addressed:

• Tools and means for fostering diversity in media in the digital context
• May social media platforms or online content aggregators be categorized as news media?
• Platforms regulation: GDPR and after
• The future of regulatory regimes for social media
• Freedom of expression on social media: for whom, how, in what way, and to what end?
• Digital business models and their impact on the quality of online news
• Weaponized social media between spycraft and international justice
• The economics of privacy: can social media put user privacy first and make money at the same time?
• Copyright and copyleft: under, over, or deregulating?

Committees

Organizing committee

• Sorin Adam Matei, chair
• François Moreau, co-chair
• Franck Rebillard, co-chair
• Fabrice Rochelandet, co-chair

Invited Speakers

Keynote speakers

• Nicolas Curien - Commissioner of the French FCC (Conseil Superieur de l'Audiovisuel)t
• Françoise Benhamou - Former member of ARCEP (French Telecom Regulator)
• Philip Napoli - James R. Shepley Professor of Public Policy, Duke University
• Davide Weinberger - Author of Small pieces loosely joined and Everything is miscellaneous

Special panels

Lee Rainie - Director of Research, Pew Research Center

Joseph Daniel - Former Chief of Staff of French Prime Minister, Political Communication Expert,  and Author of the "Presidential Word"

Venue

The conference will be held at the National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor
Washington, DC 20045

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to cla-adr@purdue.edu

Sponsors