Tag Archive for city university london

Blog, Event

Upcoming event: Media Power & Plurality conference, 2 May 2014

by admin on 31st March 2014 • 0 Comments

Policymakers throughout the world recognise the need to protect a diversity of voices and views in a democracy, but what does media plurality require in practice? How do you legislate to prevent undue concentration of media power? What interventions are needed to help new players flourish? How do you reconcile sustainable media businesses and a sufficiency of voices? How should policy approaches differ at national, regional and local level?

The government’s consultation last year focused on media measurement, but there are far broader policy issues at stake and possible lessons to be learned from other countries. This conference, in the wake of recommendations from the Leveson Inquiry and from the House of Lords Communications Committee, will explore UK policy on media ownership and diversity, as well as possible manifesto commitments in the forthcoming general election. Other panels, featuring a range of leading academic, industry and policy practitioners, will look at UK and European policy, options for local and hyperlocal initiatives, and the potential for “charitable journalism”.

The conference is organised by the University of Westminster’s AHRC-funded Media Power and Plurality research project and hosted by the Centre for Law, Justice and Journalism at City University London (Room A130, College Building).

Tickets for this event are free and will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. Reserve your place here.

#mediaplurality14

Programme

8.45 – Registration

9.15 – Opening remarks

Professor Steven Barnett, University of Westminster
Professor Howard Tumber, City University London

9.30 – Keynote

Baroness Onora O’Neill, whose influential Reith Lectures in 2002 shaped thinking on media trust and ethics.

10am – Panel 1 – Priorities for national policy

Chair: Professor Lorna Woods, University of Essex
Rachael Craufurd-Smith, Senior Lecturer, University of Edinburgh
Robin Foster, Partner, Communications Chambers and adviser on media strategy, policy and regulation
Professor Des Freedman, Goldsmiths, University of London
Professor Tom Gibbons, University of Manchester

11.30 – Coffee

11.45 – Panel 2 – Subsidies, non-profits and charity: ideas for regeneration

Chair: Professor Eric Barendt, University College London
Mandy Cormack, Non-executive Director, Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust
Isabel Hilton, Founder and Editor, China Dialogue
Tom Murdoch, Senior Associate, Charity & Social Enterprise Team, Stone King

1pm – Lunch

2pm – Panel 3 – Local media plurality: is it all doom and gloom?

Chair – Judith Townend, University of Westminster and City University London
Nigel Dacre, Chair, Local TV Network
David Holdsworth, Controller, English Regions, BBC
Martin Moore, Director, Media Standards Trust
William Perrin, Founder, TalkAboutLocal

3.30 – Tea

3.45 – Panel 4 – What can the UK learn from other countries?

Chair: Professor Petros Iosifidis, City University London
Dr Benedetta Brevini, Lecturer in Communication and Media, University of Sydney and City University London
Professor Philip M. Napoli, Professor of Journalism & Media Studies, School of Communication and Information, Rutgers University
Professor Peter Humphreys, University of Manchester
Mark Thompson, Open Society Foundations

5.15 – Close / thanks

Blog, Event, Media policy

Upcoming event, 17 December: Symposium on Global Media Policy and Business

by admin on 27th November 2013 • 0 Comments

An announcement about an upcoming book series launch at City University London:

Join us for the book series launch of Palgrave Global Media Policy and Business, co-edited by Professors Petros Iosifidis, Jeanette Steemers and Gerry Sussman.

Please email the event organiser Petros Iosifidis at P.Iosifidis@city.ac.uk to register

Programme

1.00 – 2.00pm Refreshments; books on display to be sold at a discounted price

2.00 – 4.00pm Talks on Global Media Policy and Business. Confirmed speakers include:

Steven Barnett, University of Westminster, London
Jean Chalaby, City University London
Toby Miller, University of California, Riverside
Michael Starks, Oxford University, UK
Mark Wheeler, London Metropolitan University
OFCOM representative

4.00 – 5.00pm Wine reception to follow the talks.

This event takes place in rooms D111-3, 1st floor, Social Sciences Building, St. John Street, EC1R 0JD London

Blog, Media plurality, Presentations

Professor Terry Flew on media policy and influence

by admin on 28th October 2013 • 0 Comments

Terry Flew, Professor of Media and Communications in the Creative Industries Faculty at the Queensland University of Technology, has kindly allowed us to share his recent presentations at City University London.

The first – part of the Sociology guest speaker series – considered the concept of ‘media influence’ and its continuing relevance to media policy in relation to three sets of emerging issues:

Debates about the conduct of newspapers and print media in light of the rise of online news media;
The future of broadcasting regulations and questions of ‘regulatory parity’ with other audiovisual media;
What constitutes a ‘media company’ in the context of convergent media and the rise of digital content intermediaries?

His second presentation, to members of the Centre for Law, Justice and Journalism, looked at Academics and Activists in the Policy Process: Engagement with Australian Media Inquiries 2011-13.

After its narrow re-election in June 2010, the Australian Labor government undertook a series of public inquiries into reform of Australian media, communications and copyright laws. One important driver of policy reform was the government’s commitment to building a National Broadband Network (NBN), and the implications this had for existing broadcasting and telecommunications policy, as it would constitute a major driver of convergence of media and communications access devices and content platforms. These inquiries included: the Convergence Review of media and communications legislation; the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) review of the National Classification Scheme; the Independent Media Inquiry (Finkelstein Review) into Media and Media Regulation; and the ALRC review of Copyright and the Digital Economy.

One unusual feature of this review process, discussed in the paper, was the degree to which academics were involved in the process, not simply as providers of expert opinion, but as review chairs seconded from their universities. This paper considers the role played by activist groups in all of these inquiries and their relationship to the various participants in the inquiries, as well as the implications of academics being engaged in such inquiries, not simply as activist-scholars, but as those primarily responsible for delivering policy review outcomes. The latter brings to the forefront issues arising in from direct engagement with governments and state agencies themselves, which challenges traditional understandings of the academic community as “critical outsiders” towards such policy processes.

Terry Flew is Professor of Media and Communications in the Creative Industries Faculty at the Queensland University of Technology. He is the author of New Media: An Introduction (Oxford, 2014 – 4th Edition), Understanding Global Media (Palgrave, 2007), The Creative Industries, Culture and Policy (Sage, 2012), and Global Creative Industries (Policy, 2013). Professor Flew is a member of the Australian Research Council College of Experts for Humanities and Creative Arts, and the Research Evaluation Committee (REC) Committee for Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA). During 2011-2012, Professor Flew was seconded to the Australian Law Reform Commission to chair the National Classification Scheme Review.