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UNC Center for Media Law and Policy

UNC Community is Invited to First Amendment Day 2022!

First Amendment Day is back on campus September 21st! After two years of hosting the event in virtual format, the Center for Media Law and Policy is excited to invite the Carolina community to engage in person with renowned scholars, journalists, and litigators.

 

 

The faculty co-chairs of the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy—David Ardia, Reef C. Ivey II Excellence Fund Term Professor of Law at UNC School of Law, and Amanda Reid, Associate Professor at UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media—have assembled a diverse group of speakers to discuss contemporary First Amendment issues like social media regulation, weaponization of First Amendment rhetoric, and speech in public schools (from cheerleaders to football coaches!). Other special events will include a banned book reading and a virtual First Amendment trivia contest with fun prizes and the return of the fan-favorite trivia category: First Amendment haikus.

The day will kick off at 10:30 a.m. in Carroll Hall with a student debate about timely ethical issues related to freedoms protected by the First Amendment. Then, the community is invited to the law school to hear legal scholars from UNC and the University of Helsinki discuss U.S. and European approaches to regulating social media platforms. Next, practicing journalists and lawyers will share guidance on how to stay within the bounds of the First Amendment (and out of court) when posting content online. Interdisciplinary speakers from the UNC Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life will then discuss the weaponization of the First Amendment rhetoric and how movements use the rhetoric of free speech as strategic social, political, and cultural tools. The day will culminate with a keynote address from University of Florida Professor Clay Calvert, the man who literally wrote the book on media law: Mass Media Law, 22nd Edition (with UNC Hussman graduates Dan Kozlowski ’06 (Ph.D.) and Derigan Silver ’09 (Ph.D.). Calvert will give a  thought-provoking speech titled “Free Speech and Public School Students — Lessons From a Cursing Cheerleader and South Park.”

After the day’s formal events conclude, Hussman Ph.D. student Evan Ringel will host a virtual First Amendment trivia event (Zoom link here or access at https://tinyurl.com/firstatrivia22) allowing community members to put their knowledge to the test through a series of First Amendment-related questions. Gift certificates from Chapel Hill bookstores Epilogue Books and Flyleaf Books are offered as prizes.

First Amendment Day has been a UNC tradition since 2009, and it is always observed during National Banned Books Week. The day is designed to celebrate the First Amendment and explore its role in the lives of UNC students—from social media use to political involvement. First Amendment day gives UNC community members the opportunity to discuss the public university’s special role as a marketplace of ideas and the need to be tolerant when others exercise their rights.

First Amendment Day is organized by the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy and is one of the highlights of the year for the UNC community. See the full schedule of events at firstamendmentday.unc.edu, and follow the festivities on Twitter via #UNCFree. 

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Amanda Reid Joins Media Law Center as New Faculty Co-Director

I’m thrilled to announce that Amanda Reid has joined the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy as faculty co-director of the Center.  Amanda is an associate professor at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media and holds a secondary appointment at the UNC School of Law. She is replacing Tori Ekstrand, who served as the Center’s faculty co-director from 2018-2020. Tori has moved into a new role as the Caroline H. and Thomas S. Royster Distinguished Professor for Graduate Education at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Amanda’s research is anchored around the First Amendment. She analyzes the freedoms and limitations imposed on meaning-making processes, including how substantive laws and procedural rules impact—both positively and negatively—our ability to encode and decode meaning.  Her scholarly inquiries range from the free speech implications of copyright regulation of Internet radio to the visual presentation of roadside memorial crosses and the separation of church and state.

Amanda, who earned a Ph.D. and J.D. from the University of Florida, has long contributed to the work of the Center by assisting with our M.A./J.D. and Ph.D./J.D. dual-degree programs in media law. With her training in both journalism and law, Amanda is uniquely well-suited to help grow the dual-degree program and assist in our ongoing work producing interdisciplinary research and scholarship examining how media law and policy can help traditional and new media meet the information needs of all Americans.

“I look forward to working with my brilliant colleagues and terrific students to host important conversations,” Amanda told me. “This is a vital moment to facilitate meaningful discussions about our First Amendment values.”

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

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 GuilloryDave 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 First Amendment Day is Tuesday!

It’s almost time for what we at the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy think is the best day of the year! On Tuesday, Sept. 26, UNC will celebrate its ninth-annual First Amendment Day! This day of events is one of the highlights of the year at the Center, and we are thrilled to share it with our wonderful campus.

We have an exciting schedule for our day-long event this year.  From public readings of banned books to panels on the state of campus speech, this year’s First Amendment Day is sure to foster meaningful discussion about the state of the First Amendment as well as the University’s unique role in the marketplace of ideas.

This year’s Opening Ceremony will kick-off the day at 9:30 a.m with great speakers, including Center Co-Directors Dr. Cathy Packer and Professor David Ardia. In addition, we will hear from School of Media and Journalism Dean Susan King and UNC student body president Elizabeth Adkins. Next will be a student debate on Ethics and the First Amendment at 11:00 a.m. The debate will cover two issues: offensive speech in comedy performances and limitations on religious freedoms in the U.S. military. Following the debate, the Law School will host a panel on the Future of Free Expression, which will include a discussion of the state’s recent Campus Free Speech Act. Panelists include N. C. Rep. Jonathan Jordan and Professor Mary-Rose Papandrea, UNC Law’s Dean of Academic Affairs.

Starting at noon, members of the Coalition of Youth Librarians (COYL) and others from the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS), including SILS Dean Gary Marchionini, will participate in a reading of books that have been banned from school and public libraries. The readings will continue until 2:30 p.m.

To kick off the afternoon, retired Marine Corps sergeant and investigative journalist Thomas Brennan will speak at the at the Reese News Lab in Carroll Hall at 1:00 p.m., discussing how his work led to Congressional investigations and reform earlier this year. Next, we will tackle the state of campus speech at UNC directly with the panel titled, “Who Can Speak at Carolina?” The panel will include speakers from across campus, including Gabbie Johnson, a recent UNC Law grad and participant in the Silent Sam sit-in; Carolina Review and Daily Tar Heel contributors; and the Center’s own Research Fellow, Rachael Jones. Then, at 3:30 p.m., UNC student journalists from The Daily Tar Heel, Carolina Week, and other student publications will discuss how their work is affected by negative public opinion about the press, social media, and more. 

Leading up to our keynote address, the Carolina Ukulele Ensemble will celebrate the right to make music in Carroll Hall starting at 6:30 p.m. Finally, our keynote speaker, Professor Bill Adair, will discuss the future of the free press. Professor Adair is the creator of the Pulitzer Prize-winning website Politifact. He is the director of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy and the Knight Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy at Duke University.

To wrap up our free-speech-filled day, we are hosting a First Amendment Trivia night at Linda’s Bar and Grill! The questions start at 8:00 p.m. You can compete to test your knowledge of the First Amendment rights or simply sit back and enjoy the fun. Either way, it will be a fun (and competitive) end to a great day.

We hope to see everyone at our many events this year! For more information on the schedule, events, speakers, and history of First Amendment Day, visit our webpage. Don’t forget to share your photos and thoughts from the day with us by using the hashtag #uncfree! If you have any questions, feel free to contact the Center.

See you Tuesday!

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UNC Media Law Doctoral Student Wins Top Paper Award for NCA 2017

We are pleased to announce that UNC  doctoral student Shao Chengyuan has won the top student paper award from the Communication and Law Division of the National Communication Association (NCA) this year. Chengyuan will present her paper at the NCA’s annual conference in Dallas, Texas in November. Congratulations, Shao!

Chengyuan studies media law in the UNC School of Media and Journalism. She joined the program in 2015 after earning a master’s in communication from Beijing Foreign Studies University and a bachelor’s in English from China Agricultural University in Beijing. She has now studies media law issues in China, specifically new media-related legislation and the legal boundaries of online free speech.

Chengyuan’s paper, which was blind-reviewed in the NCA’s paper competition,  is titled “Internet Defamation in China: Criminal Cases Since the 2013 Supreme People’s Court Judicial Interpretation.” Here is the abstract.

“This paper examines the recent development in Chinese defamation law, specifically the establishment of a 2013 judicial interpretation by the Supreme People’s Court that criminalized Internet defamation. This paper uses the language of Chinese law and analyzes eight Internet defamation cases decided after the 2013 judicial interpretation on Internet defamation. The criminal cases analyzed in this paper showed how Chinese public prosecutors have employed the new legal rules in cases deemed as threats to public order and state interests, as well as how Chinese individuals, acting as private prosecutors, have pursued criminal defamation prosecutions against online speakers. This paper takes into consideration the cultural and historical background of Chinese criminal defamation law and argues that, in addressing the lack of free speech protection under the current criminal defamation law, Chinese legislators need to consider raising the standard of fault for public officials and eventually abolishing the “state interest clause” of the criminal defamation statute.”

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