Tag Archives | Events

UNC School of Journalism Issues Recommendations to Help Meet Community Info Needs

By on June 13, 2012 in FCC, Journalism

Back in January, the center hosted a workshop that brought together more than 50 media scholars, professionals, attorneys and community leaders to discuss how Internet, cable television, satellite television and mobile broadband service providers could help promote local accountability journalism in North Carolina and the nation.  The full-day event was intended to hash out some of the recommendations and issues raised by the FCC’s recent report on the “Information Needs of Communities.”  The workshop was one of 11 conducted at leading universities around the country, in an effort to increase the impact of the FCC’s report, the most comprehensive look at media policy in a generation.

I’m pleased to announce that the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication has released its report from the workshop (available as a PDF here).  It recommends multiple ways to meet the information needs of communities and will be incorporated into a set of recommendations to be issued jointly by the deans of top journalism programs participating in the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the January workshop.  I hope this is the start of a long-term collaboration on these important issues.  And thank you to Dr. Dean Smith, who conducted more than a dozen follow-up interviews with participants at the workshop and served as the lead author of the UNC report.

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Center Co-Director to Join in Sunshine Day Celebration

By on March 12, 2012 in Transparency

UNC Center for Media Law and Policy Co-Director Cathy Packer will moderate a panel discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of the N.C. Public Records Law as part of the N.C. Open Government Coalition’s annual Sunshine Day celebration. The event will be held Wednesday, March 14, 2012, at Elon University. It is open to the public.

Discussing the public records law will be Hugh Stevens, a media law attorney from Raleigh; Fleming Bell, professor of public law and government in the UNC School of Government; Tom McCormick, Raleigh’s city attorney; and Fred Clasen-Kelly, a reporter for The Charlotte Observer.

Click here for a full description of the Sunshine Day event.

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Student Blogging for Law Conference

By on October 8, 2011 in First Amendment

UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication Ph.D. student Liz Woolery will participate in The Cleveland City Club’s 2011 Conference on Free Speech Oct. 11, 2011. The one-day conference brings together scholars, media practitioners and lawyers to discuss free speech issues facing the fields of politics and journalism. In advance of the event, Liz is blogging about free speech news and issues on the Club’s blog.

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Dinner with the N.C. Supreme Court

By on February 21, 2011 in Journalism

A group of students and faculty from the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication had dinner with members of the N.C. Supreme Court and the N.C. Press Association on Feb. 16, 2011.  After dinner the people at each table (there was a justice at each table) discussed one of these topics:

1.  Do you believe in the concept of judicial independence?  Should media endorsements be made on the basis of decisions made in certain cases?  If you believe in both, how can the two ideas be reconciled?

2.  Given that public financing limits the campaigns of judicial candidates, which results in most voters being uninformed (1/3 of voters do not vote for judges, and 1/2 of those who do vote for judges likely cast uninformed votes), should the media be more proactive in covering judicial races and helping in this aspect of civic education?

3.  What is the appropriate role of the media in covering appellate court decisions?  Does an incentive to cover the more controversial decisions conflict with a duty to inform the public of important, yet less intriguing, decisions?  Do controversial decisions receive too much editorial commentary, as opposed to general, fact based coverage?

4.  In the case of criminal trials, particularly high-profile crimes, where should courts draw the line on media coverage in order to ensure a fair trial, or should they draw a line at all? Could a trial closed to the public ever be fair to the defendant or the victims?

5.  Are voters qualified to elect appellate judges? Most have no real idea of who is on the ballot now. What might be better ways to select people to serve on the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court? Should they have life terms such as federal judges?

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FCC Commissioner McDowell visits J-School

By on February 21, 2011 in FCC, Internet

FCC Commissioner Robert M. McDowell visited the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication on Feb. 10, 2011, to discuss why he voted against the net neutrality regulations adopted by the FCC in December 2010.  He held a 75-minute question-and-answer session with undergraduate students in Dr. Cathy Packer’s Internet law class.  This is JOMC major Natasha Duarte’s Twitter feed on the event (in reverse order, of course):

•  New tech innovation is taking less and less time to reach an audience. We need to look at general consumer laws, not tech specific — McDowell

•  McDowell: transparency rules for ISPs blocking content would be helpful to consumers, but the FCC doesn’t have the legal authority

•  “(wireless) not substitutable (for cable), but when we think something’s not substitutable, that’s when it starts becoming substitutable.”

•  McDowell: wireless-only broadband is the fastest growing segment of broadband.

•  @hartzog asked if wireless/mobile will provide meaningful competition for cable broadband

•  McDowell says Comcasts’s blocking Bit Torrent was a bandwidth efficiency decision, not an anticompetitive business move

•  In 2008, Comcast was sued for blocking file sharing Bit Torrent; court said FCC didn’t have legal authority over Comcast

•  McDowell says he hasn’t seen anticompetitive content-based discrimination by ISPs.

•  McDowell: Statutes already exist to address collusion and “refusal to deal” by ISPs and other companies

• McDowell says he thinks #netneutrality will go to the courts (lawsuits have been filed)

•  McDowell: Congress could defund FCC enforcement of #netneutrality, but it probably won’t pass the Senate. If it does, Obama will veto.

•  McDowell: #netneutrality was embedded in Obama’s campaign promises in 2008. The promise was written by @FCC Chairman Genachowski.

•  McDowell: 90 percent of @FCC votes are unanimous and bipartisan. It’s not like Congress

•  McDowell: “Internet architecture defies authoritarian management”

•  McDowell: There’s a role for the #FCC to shine a light on allegations of discriminatory practices on the Internet

•  McDowell: The #FCC doesn’t have statutory authority to litigate over the Internet

•  #netneutrality has 3 components: Transparency, no blocking and no unreasonable discrimination

•  Here’s the #netneutrality order passed by the @FCC in December: http://bit.ly/gV6Xn1

•  McDowell’s here. I just shook his hand. OK, I’m going to stop being nerdy and start being a journalist now.

•  I’m tweeting from the @UNCJSchool N.C. Halls of Fame room where @FCC Commissioner McDowell will address students & faculty on #netneutrality

McDowell also was interviewed by The (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer.  Here’s that story:    http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/02/14/987721/decisions-on-digital-data-loom.html#storylink=misearch.

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