[ecrea] 3 year funded PhD position in Communications Law

---

The Institute for Information Law (IViR) <https://www.ivir.nl/> of the 
Law Faculty 
<http://www.uva.nl/en/about-the-uva/organisation/faculties/faculties/faculties/content/folder/faculteit-der-rechtsgeleerdheid/faculty-of-law.html> 
has a vacancy for a PhD candidate in Law.

In the digital media environment, user attention is scarce and 
competition for ‘eyeballs’ is fierce. Big Data analysis, algorithmic 
profiling and targeting readers with customised news and advertisements 
that match their individual interests are widely seen as potential 
solutions: ‘Everyone their own newspaper and personal headlines.’ The 
personalisation of news media content enables new financing strategies 
and means to capture the audience’s attention. But personalisation is 
also part of a more fundamental paradigm shift in the media’s role from 
public interest intermediary to personal information coach. This 
research will answer critical questions about the implications for 
newsreaders and society, and contribute to a new normative theory of the 
role of personalised media in a democratic society.

To do so, the PersoNews project integrates legal research, communication 
sciences and political sciences, undertakes comparative, normative and 
evidence-based research, and carries out experiments, interviews and 
surveys. The team performs quantitative and qualitative research to 
identify the user advantages, concerns and conditions of acceptability, 
as well as the drivers behind and the obstacles to news media 
personalisation, how they affect journalistic practices and whether they 
translate into new algorithmic journalistic ethics and self-regulation.

These insights feed into the legal-normative analysis, which will 
critically re-examine the existing regulatory and normative framework, 
identify gaps and make suggestions for future legal design. More 
concretely, the PhD research aims to critically examine the legal 
framework that protects the editorial independence of the media and 
ensures a fair balance between commercial pressures and the democratic 
mission of the media to inform. Advertising has always been one of the 
primary means of financing media content, and concerns about the 
integrity of editorial content vis-à-vis external influences are not 
new. Accordingly, media laws, e-commerce laws and unfair commercial 
practice laws in Europe have a long tradition of scrutinising the 
blurred lines between editorial content and advertising. An unanswered 
question that this PhD project will help to answer is to what extent the 
existing provisions are able to address new dynamics in the media value 
chain, new players, such as social networks, app stores and search 
engines, the growing influence of digital advertisers and ad networks, 
new forms of advertising in the media, and new challenges to media 
integrity.


      *Requirements*

The candidates should have:

  * an interest in the following fields: (European) communications law,
    regulation and fundamental rights law;
  * good knowledge of current developments in information markets and
    technology;
  * excel academically, as shown in the grade transcripts and curriculum
    vitae;
  * a creative mind and analytical intelligence;
  * an interest in working in a multidisciplinary team;
  * strong communication skills;
  * excellent written and spoken command of English, and ideally
    knowledge of the Dutch and German language;
  * a (research) master degree in law, or equivalent degree. Candidates
    who are due to graduate before March 2017 are also welcome to apply.

      *Conditions of employment*

The position ideally starts 1 March or 1 April 2017, and is for 3 years 
or 4 years on a part time basis. Your monthly gross salary will range 
between €2,191 and €2,801,  salary scale P on a full-time basis. The 
Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities 
<http://www.vsnu.nl/en_GB/cao-universiteiten.html> is applicable.


      *Employer*

University of Amsterdam <http://www.uva.nl/en/home>

With over 5,000 employees, 30,000 students and a budget of more than 600 
million euros, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) is an intellectual hub 
within the Netherlands. Teaching and research at the UvA are conducted 
within seven faculties: Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences, 
Economics and Business, Law, Science, Medicine and Dentistry. Housed on 
four city campuses in or near the heart of Amsterdam, where disciplines 
come together and interact, the faculties have close links with 
thousands of researchers and hundreds of institutions at home and abroad.

The UvA’s students and employees are independent thinkers, competent 
rebels who dare to question dogmas and aren’t satisfied with easy 
answers and standard solutions. To work at the UvA is to work in an 
independent, creative, innovative and international climate 
characterised by an open atmosphere and a genuine engagement with the 
city of Amsterdam and society.


      *Department*

Institute for Information Law <https://www.ivir.nl/>

The Institute for Information Law (IViR) is part of the Law Faculty 
<http://www.uva.nl/en/about-the-uva/organisation/faculties/faculties/faculties/content/folder/faculteit-der-rechtsgeleerdheid/faculty-of-law.html> 
of the University of Amsterdam, and for the past 25 years one of the 
leading centres in Europe and worldwide in research in Information Law. 
IViR is host to an international team of more than 35 researchers that 
conduct research for national and European funding organisations (NWO, 
DFG, ERC), European institutions (European Commission, European 
Parliament, Council of Europe), international organisations and national 
governments and regulatory authorities.

The PhD candidate will work as part of a multidisciplinary team of 2 
communication scientists and 2 PhD legal students, led by Prof. Natali 
Helberger. The research will be part of a European ERC project 
'Profiling and targeting news readers – implications for the democratic 
role of the digital media, user rights and public information policy'. 
The team will operate within the larger structure of a research 
collaboration between the Institute for Information Law and the 
Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR) 
<http://www.ascor.uva.nl/> to conduct research into the shift from 
public to personalised communication in the areas of politics, commerce 
and health ('//Personalised Communication'//).

The concept of editorial control is essential for defining the role and 
responsibilities of the news media. It is also a concept that is under 
great pressure, in particular in light of recent developments. News 
media are relying more and more on data and algorithms to make editorial 
decisions. The appearance of hard data on article popularity and 
engagement seems to create tensions between on the one hand pleasing the 
news user with personalised recommendation, while on the other hand 
presenting what the editor determines is politically and socially 
relevant for the news user. The media also increasingly share their 
control over selection and presentation with data-driven intermediaries, 
such as Facebook or Google. These developments pose the question: What 
is the meaning of editorial control, and the reach of editorial 
responsibility and liability in such a data-driven news environment?

And what does the dispersion of editorial control over a host of old and 
new players mean for editorial independence, as an ‘essential 
requirement for media and a direct corollary of freedom of expression’ 
(Council of Europe, 2011)? In a data-driven environment, it is not only 
the influence of the editor that counts, but also that of advertisement 
networks, news personalisation apps, search engines, social networks, 
telecommunications operators, and hardware producers. Each party comes 
with their own vested interest in which types of content users ought to 
see, and why. The value chain diversifies, and the influence of personal 
preferences of users and data-driven third parties on editorial 
decision-making is growing. This calls for revisiting the existing rules 
in communications law and the self-regulatory codes of the press, which 
traditionally aim to protect editorial independence, and the audience’s 
trust in editorial independence.

The PhD candidate will carve out the contours of editorial 
responsibility in a data-driven and personalised news environment, and 
elaborate concrete suggestions as to the reach of the concept of 
editorial control (also in relation to new information intermediaries 
such as social networks and app stores), but also the measures necessary 
to protect editorial independence, and users’ trust in editorial 
independence. In order to do so, the PhD candidate will analyse the 
history and ratio behind the regulatory notion of editorial control and 
responsibility, the role of editorial control in media law and policy, 
and the way the concept is given form in the Netherlands, Germany and 
the UK. Additionally, the PhD student will use insights from interviews 
with newsrooms and editors. The preliminary guiding research questions 
for this project are:

 1. //What is the meaning of established values and concepts such as
    editorial control, independence and liability in light of news media
    personalisation and the growing pressure of third parties and
    intermediaries on editorial decision making, and//
 2. //how should the law tackle new challenges to these concepts?//


      *Additional information*

Questions about the project content should be addressed to:

  * Professor Natali Helberger

<mailto:(n.helberger /at/ uva.nl)?subject=17-006%20%20PhD%20candidate%20in%20Law>

Letters of application, accompanied by curriculum vitae and publication 
list and an academic writing sample in English (e.g. journal article, 
PhD dissertation) must be submitted before 31 January 2017, preferably 
by e-mail to:

  * (solliciteren-fdr /at/ uva.nl) <mailto:17-006%20PhD%20candidate%20in%20Law>

or by regular post to the:

  * University of Amsterdam to the attention of the P&O Department, P.O.
    Box 1030, NL-1000 BA Amsterdam

Please send all your documents in PDF or doc(x) format. Only complete 
applications will be considered.

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