Date/Time
Date(s) - 01/20/2012
9:00 am - 3:00 pm
Freedom Forum Conference Center
On Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy will hold a day-long workshop to explore how Internet, cable television, satellite television and mobile broadband service providers could help to meet the current need for local accountability journalism. This is one of the issues raised by the 2011 FCC report “Information Needs of Communities” (http://www.fcc.gov/info-needs-communities).
The FCC report documents the effects of the digital revolution on local, professional, accountability reporting. One effect has been the loss of 13,400 newspaper newsroom positions in four years. The loss of those workers, the report argues, is likely to result in government waste, more local corruption, less effective schools and other serious community problems. The UNC workshop will search for ways to increase the amount of accountability journalism being done in local communities.
Workshop Description
Program Schedule
Participants
The FCC Report and Other Background Information
Workshop Description
The workshop will have three parts. First, a roundtable discussion will identify the gaps in accountability journalism in North Carolina, the causes of the gaps and the opportunities they present. Second, representatives of Internet, cable television, satellite television and mobile broadband service providers, and others will discuss whether and how service providers could help to fill those gaps. We will end the day with a roundtable discussion led by Professor Michael Gerhardt, director of the UNC Center for Law and Government, that will seek to synthesize the findings and discussions into a set of policy recommendations.
In addition to the author of the FCC report, participants will include a diverse array of legal and communications scholars, media professionals, practicing attorneys, and others.
The idea for the workshop came from the deans of the Carnegie-Knight journalism schools. The Carnegie-Knight journalism schools are a dozen of the top programs in the country, including the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication. With funding from the Carnegie Corp. of New York and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the schools have been engaged in a multi-year program to adapt journalism education to the challenges of a struggling news industry (http://carnegie.org/programs/future-of-journalism-education/). Last summer the deans agreed that a series of symposia would be organized by their schools to explore issues in the FCC report that needed more thought and advocacy.
The UNC’s workshop is funded with a generous grant from the Knight Foundation.
A final report generated from the UNC workshop will be advanced for incorporation into a set of recommendations to be issued jointly by all the participating deans of the Carnegie-Knight journalism schools. It is intended that this statement serve as a communications policy blueprint and that the participation of multiple leading journalism schools will increase the statement’s impact.
Program Schedule
Panel 1, led by Penny Abernathy and Ferrel Guillory, included Fiona Morgan, Sarah Cohen, Alan Mason, and Rick Thames.
Panel 2, led by David Ardia, included Michelle Connolly, Mark Prak, Liz Hill, and Blair Levin.
Roundtable, led by Michael Gerhardt, included Lili Levi, Dean Smith, and all of the invited participants.
Click here for the FCC Workshop Program.
Participants
Click here for a PDF of participant bios.
Click here for the FCC Workshop Program.
The FCC Report and Other Background Information
The FCC’s 2011 report on the “Information Needs of Communities” is available here.
Download .mp3 files of all workshop sessions.
Or listen to individual sessions:
Welcome and Introduction
Susan King, Dean, UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Cathy Packer, professor, UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication; co-director of UNC Center for Media Law & Policy
David Ardia, assistant professor, UNC School of Law; co-director of UNC Center for Media Law & Policy
Q&A with James Hamilton and Steven Waldman
James Hamilton, Charles S. Sydnor Professor, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University
Steven Waldman, former journalist, entrepreneur, bureaucrat and senior adviser to chairman of the FCC
Panel 1: Gaps and opportunities in accountability journalism
Led by: Penny Abernathy, Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics, UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Ferrel Guillory, professor of the practice, UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Panelists:
Fiona Morgan, associate in research, DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy, Duke University
Sarah Cohen, Knight Professor of the Practice, Duke University
Alan Mason, vice president and general manager, News 14
Rick Thames, editor, Charlotte Observer
Panel 2: How Internet, cable, satellite and mobile broadband providers can support local accountability journalism
Led by: David Ardia, assistant professor, UNC School of Law; co-director of UNC Center for Media Law & Policy
Panelists:
Michelle Connolly, associate professor, economics department, Duke University
Mark Prak, partner, Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard
Blair Levin, communications and society fellow, Aspen Institute
Liz Hill, Carolinas Wireless Association
Lunch presentation
Tom Stites, founder and president, Banyan Project
Roundtable discussion of policy proposals
Led by: Michael Gerhardt, Samuel Ashe Distinguished Professor of Constitutional Law, UNC School of Law
Lili Levi, professor of law, University of Miami School of Law
Tagged: Panels, Workshops
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