[ecrea] Call for Papers: Chinese media law

Dear members

Please find hereunder a call for papers for a conference in Oxford on Chinese media law and regulation,  in June. One objective of this conference is to identify young researchers working on these topics and bring them together, so Ph.D. students and early career researchers are especially invited to participate.

Kind regards
Rogier Creemers
University of Oxford
Programme for Comparative Media Law and Policy


Call for papers: Chinese Media Legislation and Regulation: Trends, Issues and Questions.


The Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP) at the University of Oxford is organizing a conference on Chinese media legislation and regulation, in Oxford, on 15 June 2012, on the following issues:

China’s media landscape has undergone tremendous change over the last few years. Technological innovation and the explosion of Internet use have changed the landscape for the dissemination of entertainment and information. Provincial television channels have boomed. Privatization and foreign investment and influence have become important questions for consideration. The cultural industries have become a priority area for further economic development. At the international level, media trade is one of the most prominent issues between China and the United States. Electronic media have also become a channel for bottom-up political activity: increasingly microblogs are used to bring specific incidents into the public sphere, or for satirical expressions.

These evolutions have been studied in-depth from the angles of political science, communication studies and cultural studies. The legal and regulatory aspects, in contrast, have received less attention in academic literature. Understanding the internal dynamics of the regulatory system for the media is crucial to better explain its impact on political issues, how media law and regulation reflect broader evolutions in China’s legal system, and to provide a deeper insight in the shifting priorities and objectives of the current leadership. To identify salient issues and bring emerging talent in the field together, the Programme for Comparative Media Law and Policy at the University of Oxford will organize a conference which will revolve around the following issues:


•       Understanding the context of Chinese media law, regulation and policy. What dynamics exist in the restructuring of institutional interests behind media law and policymaking? How do policy making institutions in China interact with international counterparts? What shifts are taking place in the bureaucracy of decision-making and why, including those between the Party and State, and along horizontal and vertical lines. Is the conception of an underlying value system changing and if yes, how are relevant interests mobilized?


•       Emerging media doctrines and enforcement. Is there consistency between the various administrative regulations? Can one examine case studies in regulation—the recent changes on regulation of entertainment formats, for example—as a way of presenting new understandings of media law and policy making in China? Is the role of the courts changing in terms of functioning in the media policy realm? Are various zones of litigation, tort law, defamation or privacy law, financial or business law, having an impact on media policy? Which sorts of cases are brought to courts, or how does administrative enforcement function?


•       Alternative forms of regulation. How are co-regulation and self-regulation taking shape in China? In which sectors are these applied? What are the actors, structures and processes?


•       International cooperation and trade. How is China opening up for foreign investors? Does this result in shifting patterns of business activities, investment and participation? What is the influence of the WTO and other international regimes on Chinese media law and regulation?


•       How does discourse about media law and regulation include reference to international norms and competing models of regulation? What is the state of research on effects of change in norms and enforcement on social relations?

PCMLP invites proposals that aim to provide conceptual, empirical or theoretical approaches to these and related questions. All researchers are welcome, but Ph.D. researchers and early-career academics are especially encouraged to apply. Interested participants are kindly requested to send an abstract of no more than 500 words and a brief CV to Rogier Creemers ((rogier.creemers /at/ csls.ox.ac.uk)<mailto:(rogier.creemers /at/ csls.ox.ac.uk)>) before 31 March 2012. Participants will be informed about acceptance before 15 April 2012.

It is expected that the conference papers will form a publication, the exact format still to be determined.
For further information about PCMLP, please see:http://pcmlp.socleg.ox.ac.uk<http://pcmlp.socleg.ox.ac.uk/>



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