<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<div align="center"><b>ECREA 2012 PRE-CONFERENCE</b><br>
</div>
<div align="center"> <b>Istanbul, 23 October 2012</b><br>
</div>
<br>
<br>
<div align="center"><b>Imposing Freedoms:</b><br>
</div>
<div align="center"><b>The role of copyright, privacy and censorship
governance in the re/definition of rights in digital media</b><br>
</div>
<br>
<br>
This event is co-organised by the Media Governance and Industries
Research Group (<a moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://mediagovernance.univie.ac.at">http://mediagovernance.univie.ac.at</a>)
of the Department of Communication Studies at the University of
Vienna with the:<br>
<br>
ECREA Communication Law and Policy Section<br>
IAMCR Communication Policy and Technology (CP&T) and Law
Sections<br>
ICA Communication Law and Policy Division<br>
<br>
It is hosted by the Plato College of Higher Education.<br>
<br>
In the era of digital, global, around-the-clock communications,
changes in the practices and principles in the production,
distribution and consumption of the media raise pressing questions
for media governance. Established values in communication regulation
-- from individual liberties to the public interest, and from state
security to the free market -- continue to coexist, but often stand
in conflict with each other, undergoing new interpretations, often
in the company of emerging principles. Tactics of control are used
by governments, corporations, communities, and citizens. These deal
with different subjects and have varying aims and degrees of
success, but all influence the ways in which the governance of
communicative action develops.<br>
<br>
To a great extent, media governance values derive from the
Enlightenment project, regulating (or regularising) actions by
citizens, states, communities, and/or corporations. Liberty and
freedom of expression, self-governance and legitimacy, the rule of
law, equality, and universality of rights are understood to provide
the underpinnings of national regulatory and legal frameworks.
Experience with the effects of legal efforts to operationalise such
concepts in the digital environment, however, changed the way in
which these values are understood. Individual freedom appears
fragile in the context of contemporary control and surveillance
methods used by both public and private sector entities. Existing
freedoms as provided by, for example, the right to access
information appear to be viewed as imposing inconveniences that must
be dealt with through new tactics of control. In many contexts,
freedom is increasingly being treated as a 'transitive' condition
that is 'imposed' on<br>
societies without reference to actual needs or concomitant attention
to justice as understood by those upon whom control practices are
being imposed and with selective attention to international
standards. Digital media governance models are called to deal with
the contemporary conflict between powerful intentions and fragile
conditions, individual freedoms and transnational influences, the
political enmeshment of the public and the private, and the effects
of networks on the structures of power. Drawing upon contemporary
theories, governance is understood as the formal and informal
practices of institutions and private and public sector actors. In
the realm of digital media, this kind of governance explicitly
and/or implicitly frames social relations and vice versa. This means
that emerging forms of governance have implications for our
understanding of agency, democracy and citizenship.<br>
<br>
This symposium invites theoretical, methodological and empirical
papers with a specific focus on actual or possible new values,
doctrinal principles, and/or implementation practices of media
governance as they redefine, reinterpret, operationalise, or abandon
freedom as traditionally understood, from the perspective of
governments, corporations, communities, and also citizens. Some
suggested directions for enquiry include:<br>
<br>
-What kinds of new or revived values are informing media governance?
Which models of governance are being promoted, and which are being
sidelined?<br>
-What experiences with alleged freedom, or alternative modes of
conceptualising freedom, test the validity, appropriateness, and
efficacy of current media governance practices worldwide?<br>
-To what extent are governments applying new tactics and
reconfiguring regulatory values to maintain control over digital and
physical spaces?<br>
-How is globalization of the law affecting media governance at the
national level?<br>
-Will the anti-terrorism and crisis 'state of exception' used by
most governments to justify significant changes in the treatment of
free speech and access to information endure? If so, what are the
implications of this development for media governance in the future?<br>
-In which ways are global corporations involved in the shaping of
media governance and what are the implications of these developments
in policymaking for the reconceptualisation of certain freedoms and
rights (e.g., in the areas of privacy, expression, and copyright)?<br>
- To what extent and in which ways are the practices by citizens and
communities following, opposing and/or negotiating media
(technology) governance, and what are the consequences for agency,
empowerment and freedom of media users (e.g. in design/domestication
of media, tactics/strategies by public, democratic rationalisation)?<br>
-Which models of media governance may be particularly fruitful for
those seeking guarantees of the legal, material and symbolic aspects
of individual and communal freedoms and identities? What new
tactics of control and resistance are enabled by such models?<br>
-In what ways can media regulation be responsible for the
encroachment of certain individual freedoms and rights despite
appearing to try to preserve those same freedoms and rights?<br>
<br>
We are interested in dynamic panel debates and dialogue, and the
development of research agendas as an outcome of the event. For this
reason there will be a limited number of participants.<br>
<br>
<b>Confirmed speakers</b><br>
Jonas Andersson, Sodertorn University, Sweden<br>
Alison Beale, Simon Fraser University, Canada<br>
Sandra Braman University of Wisconsin, US<br>
Mary Griffiths, University of Adelaide, Australia<br>
Jo Pierson, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium<br>
Evangelia Psychogiopoulou, ELIAMEP Greece<br>
Katharine Sarikakis, University of Vienna, Austria<br>
Laura Stein, University of Texas, US<br>
Asli Tunc, Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey<br>
<br>
<b>Abstract Submission</b><br>
Please submit your 400 words abstract along with your contact
details and a 3 lines bio to <u><a moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:mediagovernance.pkw@univie.ac.at">mediagovernance.pkw@univie.ac.at</a></u><br>
The deadline for the submission of abstracts is <b>May 7, 2012</b>.
We encourage early submissions.<br>
Notification of abstract review <b>May 20, 2012</b>.<br>
<br>
<b>Conference page<br>
</b><a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.ecrea2012istanbul.eu/pre-conference/imposing-freedoms.html">http://www.ecrea2012istanbul.eu/pre-conference/imposing-freedoms.html</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
============================================================================
Salvatore Scifo
General Coordinator
4th European Communication Conference
Istanbul, 24-27 October 2012
E: <a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:conference@ecrea2012istanbul.eu">conference@ecrea2012istanbul.eu</a>
W: <a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.ecrea2012istanbul.eu">www.ecrea2012istanbul.eu</a>
European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA)
<a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.ecrea.eu">www.ecrea.eu</a></pre>
<br>
<br>
</body>
</html>