Author Archive | David Ardia

Announcing the Center for Media Law and Policy’s 2017-18 Affiliated Faculty

By on October 9, 2017 in Center for Media Law and Policy

We are excited to announce the Center’s 2017-18 faculty affiliates. This year, the Center added six scholars to our returning group of affiliated faculty, and we are thrilled to have them join our community. Our newest faculty affiliates are:

  • Frayda Bluestein, David M. Lawrence Distinguished Professor of Public Law and Government, UNC School of Government
  • Deen Freelon, Associate Professor, UNC School of Media and Journalism
  • William Marshall, William Rand Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law, UNC School of Law
  • Alice Marwick, Assistant Professor, UNC Department of Communication
  • Torin Monahan, Professor, UNC Department of Communication
  • Zeynep Tufecki, Associate Professor, UNC School of Information and Library Science

They will be joining our returning faculty affiliates: Penny Abernathy, Victoria Smith Ekstrand, Deborah Gerhardt, Anne Gilliland, Ferrel Guillory, Dave Hansen, Michael Hoefges, Paul Jones, Anne Klinefelter, Daniel Kreiss, Cal Lee, Gary Marchionini, Mary-Rose Papandrea, and Ryan Thornburg. You can read about each of these amazing scholars on our Affiliated Faculty page.

Affiliates of the Center are a community of scholars interested in the interdisciplinary exploration of issues related to media law and policy. Faculty affiliates play an active role in the life of the Center by participating in the Center’s activities and identifying opportunities for interdisciplinary collaborations.

Image by Martin Grandjean licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

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UNC Media Law Student Part of Winning Research Group

By on August 30, 2017 in Journalism

UNC media law student Mariam Turner is among a group of faculty and graduate students who have won a $10,000 research award from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications’ Mass Communication and Society Division. The award, which was announced over the summer, was given to Dr. Daniel Riffe and Dr. Adam Saffer from the UNC School of Media and Journalism.  However, students were the forces behind the grant application.

The study will look at the interlocking of U.S. media company boards of directors, and how much this influences media content. The idea arose in Dr. Riffe’s Theories of Media Processes & Procedures course last spring. Mariam, who was a student in that class, plans to help with data collection, the literature review, and creation of the survey.

Mariam is in the third year of UNC’s four-year dual-degree program. In this program, which is administered by the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy, she’ll earn both a J.D. and a master’s degree in mass communication.

Go, Mariam!

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Welcome Our New Research Fellow, Rachael Jones

By on August 23, 2017 in Journalism, Transparency

The UNC Center for Media Law and Policy is proud to announce that it has hired its first research fellow, Rachael Jones.  Rachael, who started this week, will oversee the Center’s research initiatives, with a particular focus on government transparency.

Prior to joining the Center, Rachael served as the Jack Nelson/Dow Jones Legal Fellow at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (“RCFP”). At RCFP, Rachael assisted journalists daily, and primarily focused on state and federal public records act matters. She has presented her research on free speech issues at the Yale Information and Society Project’s Freedom of Expression Scholars Conference for the past two years and served as a panelist for freedom of information topics for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s Law and Policy Division. Rachael earned her J.D. with honors from the University of Florida in 2016, where she was a research editor for the Florida Journal of International Law. While at UF Law, Rachael served as a research assistant to Dean Lyrissa Lidsky and as an extern-clerk to the Honorable Stephanie Ray of the First District Court of Appeal of the State of Florida. In addition, Rachael has studied comparative constitutional law and dispute resolution at the University of Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa. Rachael received her Bachelor in Fine Arts degree from the University of Florida in 2011 and hails from the Destin, Florida, area.

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UNC Law Student Named Finalist in Games Industry Legal Challenge

By on April 26, 2017 in Copyright

RileyKathleen Riley, a second-year law student at the UNC School of Law, has been named as one of five finalists in the 2017 Games Industry Law Summit’s Legal Challenge. The international competition, which is based on an actual dispute involving gaming law,  is open to law students and practicing lawyers from all over the world.  Submissions were reviewed by a 6 member jury made up of some of the top gaming lawyers from the United States and European Union. Kathleen was the only finalist from the U.S. and received an invitation to attend the 2017 summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, where the winners will be announced on April 27, 2017 (1st place will receive a prize of €1,000 and 2nd place will receive €500).

Last year, the Games Industry Law Summit drew over 100 professionals from gaming companies and law firms representing 25 countries, including: US, Brazil, UK, Ireland, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, France, Netherlands, Spain, Romania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Cyprus, Malta, and Luxembourg.

Congratulations, Kathleen, and good luck tomorrow!

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In addition to preparing for her trip to Lithuania, Kathleen was gracious enough to pass along the following information that might be of interest to other students interested in video game law:

IGDAF Women in Games Ambassador Program

Late Dec/early Jan application deadline, the Game Development Conference (GDC) takes place in late Feb/early Mar.  Successful applicants receive a scholarship including an all access pass to the GDC in San Francisco and a stipend for travel. While GDC is mostly tailored to game developers, there are many great legal talks, and lots of opportunities to network with lawyers in the industry. The IGDAF is looking to expand participation in the Ambassador program to business and legal students/professionals.

IGDA Scholars Program

This program is closely related to the Women in Games Ambassador program, but is not limited to women. 

Video Game Bar Association Scholarship Program

This is another writing competition, but instead of being practice-based, competitors submit a paper on a current legal topic related to the video game industry.  The winner receives a $2,500 stipend as well as round-trip airfare, accommodations, and admission to attend the Video Game Bar Association‘s Annual Video Game Law Summit in Los Angeles. The winning submission is also published in the Summit materials book. 

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Video Available for “Freedom of the Press and the Trump Administration”

By on April 2, 2017 in First Amendment, Journalism

The video from the Center’s discussion of “Freedom of the Press and the Trump Administration” is now available on Vimeo.  The March 21 event was headlined by George Freeman, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center and former assistant general counsel of the New York Times Co., who discussed the challenges to press freedom that are likely to arise (and have already arisen) under the Trump administration. Mr. Freeman provided opening remarks on this subject and then sat down with Professor Mary-Rose Papandrea, a noted First Amendment expert, for an open-ended conversation that explored the administration’s positions on executive branch transparency, journalists’ access to government officials, whistleblower protections, the scope of defamation law, and respect for journalists, among other topics.

You can view the video here:

 

Freedom of the Press and the Trump Administration from Center for Media Law and Policy on Vimeo.

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