*Call for Proposals
Dirty, Sexy Policy Conference*
February 20-21, 2014 at the University of California, Santa Barbara
Keynote speakers:
- Nicholas Johnson, former FCC Commissioner and Visiting Faculty,
University of Iowa College of Law
- Des Freedman, Reader in Communications and Cultural Studies,
Goldsmiths University of London
The Carsey-Wolf Center’s Media Industries Project [MIP] announces a call
for participants in the Dirty, Sexy Policy Conference at UC Santa Barbara.
As media attention to the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect
IP Act [SOPA/PIPA] in 2012 and the National Security Agency’s massive data
gathering program, PRISM, has shown, concerns about the regulation of
content and the conduits through which it travels have intensified in the
age of digital data. But these media reports rarely address the critical
junctures that inform and unify content and structural policy debates.
Those who concentrate on the regulation of obscenity and indecency do not
typically engage with those who specialize in media infrastructure and
broadband policy, and vice versa. Moreover, while policy scholars engage
with legal and journalistic reporting in their research, they seldom share
their concerns and strategies with those stakeholders to collectively
pursue more relevant and effective media policies. To bridge this divide,
Dirty, Sexy Policy will bring together prominent scholars, attorneys,
regulators, and journalists to explore the challenges facing current media
policy and those it affects.
Panelists will not be asked to present a written paper but instead will
participate in a lively discussion and debate through a moderated Q&A.
Participants on three panels will explore content regulation of obscenity
and indecency, structural regulation of broadband technologies, and the
broader stakes that policy critics share. A fuller description of the
questions driving each panel is below.
Confirmed panelists include Jeffrey J. Douglas and Diane Duke (Free Speech
Coalition), Blair Levin (The Aspen Institute), Jacob Sullum (*Reason* and *
Forbes*), Stephen Yagielowicz (*XBiz World*), Becky Lentz (McGill
University), and Philip Napoli (Fordham University).
*To apply* to participate as a panelist, please submit the following to
Karen Petruska at [log in to unmask]:
- A 300-word commentary about an issue relating to ONE of the panels
below (please indicate in the subject line of your email to which panel you
are responding).
- A 100-word biographical statement.
The deadline for proposals is *October 15, 2013*. We will inform
participants of acceptance via e-mail by the end of November.
Further details about the conference, including accommodation information,
will be available soon on the MIP website:
http://www.carseywolf.ucsb.edu/mip/.
*Panel Descriptions*
Panel 1: Obscenity and Indecency
Obscenity and indecency policy have separate but overlapping histories.
This panel will explore how these histories might be productively discussed
in relation to one another. Topics may include:
- Obscenity as the limit case of policy studies
- The future of the FCC’s indecency policies
- The stakeholders in obscenity and indecency policy in the digital era,
from Morality in Media to Apple
- Shadow policies, such as mandatory condom laws and 2257 age
recordkeeping requirements, used to regulate the adult industry when
obscenity prosecutions no longer work
- Arbitrary and capricious applications of the law in obscenity and
indecency
Panel 2: Infrastructure
Digital technologies have brought about new challenges and possibilities
for infrastructure policy. This panel seeks to address the most critical of
those issues, including:
- The “public interest” in the current regulatory climate
- The holes in regulatory policy brought about by new technologies
- The current state of net neutrality in broadband regulation
- The role of activism in shaping information policy
- Regulatory capture: private companies as policymakers
Panel 3: Content / Conduit
This panel will integrate the content and conduit concerns of the previous
panels and put indecency, obscenity, and infrastructure policies into
dialogue. Questions include:
- How have digital distribution technologies affected the regulation of
the adult industry?
- What is the role of internet service providers [ISPs] and technology
companies in policing content?
- How might we advocate for better media coverage related to critical
policy matters about obscenity, indecency, and infrastructure?
- What current initiatives are creating models for a more sustainable
media policy?
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Karen Petruska, Ph.D.
Project Lead, Connected Viewing Initiative
Media Industries Project, Carsey-Wolf Center
4439 Social Sciences & Media Studies Bldg (SSMS)
University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4020
Ph: 805-893-2631
[log in to unmask]
http://www.carseywolf.ucsb.edu
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Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the
University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu
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