[ecrea] CFP for Dirty, Sexy Policy Conference at UC Santa Barbara

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 (petruska /at/ carseywolf.ucsb.edu):

    * 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?



--
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
(petruska /at/ carseywolf.ucsb.edu)
http://www.carseywolf.ucsb.edu

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