Social Science Research Council

Media Research Pre-Conference: Jan 11, 2007

Published on: Dec 07, 2006

The Media Policy Research Pre-conference was a one-day event leading into the National Conference on Media Reform on January 12-14^th.  The Pre-Conference was intended to facilitate stronger academic research engagement with policy processes, advocacy needs, and other aspects of media reform.  More than 200 scholars, researchers, advocates and policy-makers from a wide range of disciplines gathered on January 11 to discuss ways of coordinating research efforts on policy opportunities and reform agendas in 2007.

The program included:

• A keynote address by FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein (transcript, MP3 audio file)
• A poster session for researchers to present and discuss their work;
• Working group sessions on specific research areas;
• A closing strategy session as we look toward 2007 and 2008.

About the Poster Session
Researchers were provided opportunities to present new work on media policy and changes in the media environment during a morning poster session.  Short presentations were followed by an interactive session for smaller conversations and sharing of work.  Papers were on a variety of topics related to media policy or reform.

About the Working Groups
The working group sessions were organized to provide spaces for small groups of researchers and advocates to coordinate efforts on key media policy and reform topics as policy windows develop in 2007.  The working groups were assembled around the following issue areas:

• Taking Research Public: Strategies for Advocacy Partnerships and Media Impact

• Media Ownership: The Media Ownership Group formed after the 2005 NMRC event to prepare for renewed battles over the regulation on media ownership.  The group has worked since then to bring a collection of studies to bear on FCC deliberations.   The group will continue into 2007 as the ownership debates proceed.

• Local Newspaper Ownership: What are policy measures that could be put in place that would foster local ownership of local newspapers, i.e. legal and tax code measures?  This working group examined different models for creating and sustaining viable journalism at the local level into the digital era, from community-owned to journalist-owned papers. 

• Universal Access: As access to broadband services becomes a condition of full participation in economic, social and cultural life, strategies for expanding access have evolved.  Municipal broadband provision, in particular, signals the emergence of a ‘public utility’ approach to access.  Lessons from these and other experiments in access will help shape the meaning of social inclusion in the next decade.  The Universal Access working group plans to continue to contribute to this process. 

• Radio Spectrum : Radio spectrum supports a growing range of telephony, data, and location-based services, making it a basic natural resource for the information society.  Policy debates over the use and regulation of spectrum are wide ranging, touching on questions of public access, technological innovation, media diversity, and privacy.  The spectrum session worked to coordinate research inputs on policy questions in this area.

• Media Representations and Media Justice:  Media content and media representations have been key points of entry for public interest in media policy, and a longstanding subject of concern for media research.  This roundtable explored the relationship between contemporary justice concerns—including racial and gender inequalities—and the ‘content’ of the media. 

• Public Access TV and New Media: This roundtable discussed how public access television (“access TV”) can pursue its existing mission using new media, especially as changes to the franchise system for public access TV are debated in 2007.  Beginning with the recognition that access TV possesses an invaluable infrastructure of organizations and funding, and the working group considered how that could be better connected to media like municipal wi-fi, Internet video, and content management systems.

• Children’s Media: The media environment for children has become increasingly complex in recent years, as have the issues and debates surrounding digital media and the increased interactivity they provide. New norms of media use behavior are currently evolving among the generation that is the first to come of age in the digital era. Media policies that address the specific needs of the young as audiences, citizens, creators, and consumers are required. 

• Network Neutrality and Internet Regulation: ‘Network neutrality’ is one of a handful of regulatory issues with the potential to reshape the Internet.  The network neutrality debate in 2006 was heated and marked by many conflicting accounts of what was at stake.  As this debate continues in 2007, this working group clarified the stakes and coordinate research that can support the participatory, democratic characteristics of the Internet.

 

For all communication about the pre-conference: mediahub@ssrc.org or call Rik Panganiban at 1-212-377-2700 x644.