[ecrea] Academic Research, New Media Technologies and the Culture of Control

*Academic Research, New Media Technologies and the Culture of Control:*

An interdisciplinary workshop at the University of Wollongong

Fri/Sat 2/3 October 2015

url: http://lha.uow.edu.au/hsi/news-events/UOW192209

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Organised by Mark McLelland and Andrew Whelan, School of Humanities and
Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong

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*Background*

In the last decade there has been a transformation of media consumption,
production, dissemination and networking enabled by expanding access to
mobile broadband. One important difference between this new era and
prior media transformations is the breakdown between media
audiences/consumers and producers/broadcasters. The shift to digital
media has led to a massive increase in user-generated content (UGC), and
hybrid terms such as ‘produser’ and ‘prosumer’ have been
developed to capture the new relationship that media users now have with
digital content and technologies.

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These rapid changes in contemporary ‘mediascapes’ have led to
enhanced regulatory measures with respect to censorship, data storage
and management, privacy and intellectual property. Fear and insecurity
about the online environment are driving ongoing calls for increased
regulation and preventative security, especially in relation to child
protection and terrorism. Discourses of ‘harm’ and ‘risk’ have
led to a demand for a suite of regulations that now capture
individuals’ online lives, burdening internet providers and users in
ways that multiply this regulatory impact. These discourses and their
articulations extend across government legislation and down to policies
at local institutional levels: in the home, in workplaces, in schools,
and also in universities. Yet within the scholarly community, there has
been little interest to date in addressing the consequences for academic
research itself, given research is shaped by university protocols (such
as IT and acceptable use policies, data retention requirements,
mandatory reporting, civility and conduct codes, research and teaching
audits, ethics protocols and committees and so on).

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This workshop brings together researchers from sociology, anthropology,
information technology, law, fan studies and media studies to discuss
the impact that enhanced regulatory frameworks have had on shaping the
kinds of research that can be undertaken and on deterring certain kinds
of questions and agendas. The speakers take up ‘the challenge . . . to
take a more active role in shaping public policy making that can impact
on the conduct of e-research’ (Lyons et al., 2010: 159). We aim to
produce a collection of papers to inform academics, online users,
university lawyers and ethics committees, legislators and other
interested parties about the consequences of recent legislative changes,
and to support the development of more effective, evidence-based
policies regarding research into online spaces and the regulation of
such spaces.

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*Confirmed Speakers*

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Kath Albury (Media and Communication, UNSW): Self-Representation =
Self-Incrimination: The Risks and Opportunities of Researching Young
People’s Digital Cultures

Catherine Driscoll and Liam Grealy (Cultural Studies, USYd): Media
Classification and Mionoritised Adolescence

Terry Flew (Media and Communication, QUT): Weber, Foucault and the
Governance of Media Content

Laura Lowenkron (Anthroplogy, Unicamp): Politics of Fear and Regulation
of Desires: The Brazilian Political Crusade against Pedophilia and Child
Pornography on the Internet

Chris Moore (Media & Communication, UOW): Persona Autosurveillance:
Digital Objects, Privacy, Property and Visualising the Presentation of
the Public Self

Lyria Bennett Moses (Law, UNSW): Defining the Regulatory Space

Mark McLelland (Sociology, UOW): Surveilling Fantasy: Thought Policing
or Pre-Emptive Action?

Brady Robards (Sociology, UTas): Scrolling Back on Facebook: Qualitative
Research into Social Media

Brian Simpson (Law, UNE): Legal Narratives of Childhood in the Digital
Age: Tensions and Contradictions in the Regulation of the Innocent,
Autonomous or Otherwise ‘Wicked Child’Â

Andrew Whelan (Sociology, UOW): What is Obscene Enough? Pretending to
Not Know -- Obscenity and Absurdity

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*Call for Papers*

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Abstracts are invited for 20-minute papers on the following or cognate
topics:

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Classification and transmediation

The role of risk aversion in online regulation

The chill effects of government and university regulations on online
research

The impact of ‘place’ on online research

Relations between policy and media texts

The ethics of observation: who is watching who?

Media antagonism toward academic inquiry and the battle of the ‘experts’

Finding the right ‘frame’ for contentious topics

Cross-cultural comparisons of regulatory regimes

Auditing the audit culture: speaking back to the regulators

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There are limited spaces for additional speakers. Please submit 200 word
abstracts via the online submission form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/14ivud7OLjQwkXvt0fEVxvv5pzlu7CW408A-vxLPcjIQ/viewform?usp=send_form 

by July 1, 2015.

There are also limited spaces for non-presenters. To book a place or
make other inquiries, e-mail may be sent to (uow.newmediaethics /at/ gmail.com)
<mailto:(uow.newmediaethics /at/ gmail.com)>. Participation is free of charge
and the fully catered event will be held at the University of
Wollongong. Acknowledgement of acceptance will be sent by July 15.
Papers from the workshop will be considered for a special journal edition.



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