[csaa-forum] Academic Research, New Media Technologies and the Culture of Control

[Andrew Whelan]

Hello everyone,


The following event may be of interest:


*Academic Research, New Media Technologies and the Culture of Control:*

An interdisciplinary workshop at the University of Wollongong

Fri/Sat 2/3 October 2015

url: http://lha.uow.edu.au/hsi/news-events/UOW192209



Organised by Mark McLelland and Andrew Whelan, School of Humanities and
Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong



*Background*

In the last decade there has been a transformation of media consumption,
production, dissemination and networking enabled by expanding access to
mobile broadband. One important difference between this new era and prior
media transformations is the breakdown between media audiences/consumers
and producers/broadcasters. The shift to digital media has led to a massive
increase in user-generated content (UGC), and hybrid terms such as
‘produser’ and ‘prosumer’ have been developed to capture the new
relationship that media users now have with digital content and
technologies.



These rapid changes in contemporary ‘mediascapes’ have led to enhanced
regulatory measures with respect to censorship, data storage and
management, privacy and intellectual property. Fear and insecurity about
the online environment are driving ongoing calls for increased regulation
and preventative security, especially in relation to child protection and
terrorism. Discourses of ‘harm’ and ‘risk’ have led to a demand for a suite
of regulations that now capture individuals’ online lives, burdening
internet providers and users in ways that multiply this regulatory impact.
These discourses and their articulations extend across government
legislation and down to policies at local institutional levels: in the
home, in workplaces, in schools, and also in universities. Yet within the
scholarly community, there has been little interest to date in addressing
the consequences for academic research itself, given research is shaped by
university protocols (such as IT and acceptable use policies, data
retention requirements, mandatory reporting, civility and conduct codes,
research and teaching audits, ethics protocols and committees and so on).



This workshop brings together researchers from sociology, anthropology,
information technology, law, fan studies and media studies to discuss the
impact that enhanced regulatory frameworks have had on shaping the kinds of
research that can be undertaken and on deterring certain kinds of questions
and agendas. The speakers take up ‘the challenge . . . to take a more
active role in shaping public policy making that can impact on the conduct
of e-research’ (Lyons et al., 2010: 159). We aim to produce a collection of
papers to inform academics, online users, university lawyers and ethics
committees, legislators and other interested parties about the consequences
of recent legislative changes, and to support the development of more
effective, evidence-based policies regarding research into online spaces
and the regulation of such spaces.



*Confirmed Speakers*



Kath Albury (Media and Communication, UNSW): Self-Representation =
Self-Incrimination: The Risks and Opportunities of Researching Young
People’s Digital Cultures

Catherine Driscoll and Liam Grealy (Cultural Studies, USYd): Media
Classification and Mionoritised Adolescence

Terry Flew (Media and Communication, QUT): Weber, Foucault and the
Governance of Media Content

Laura Lowenkron (Anthroplogy, Unicamp): Politics of Fear and Regulation of
Desires: The Brazilian Political Crusade against Pedophilia and Child
Pornography on the Internet

Chris Moore (Media & Communication, UOW): Persona Autosurveillance: Digital
Objects, Privacy, Property and Visualising the Presentation of the Public
Self

Lyria Bennett Moses (Law, UNSW): Defining the Regulatory Space

Mark McLelland (Sociology, UOW): Surveilling Fantasy: Thought Policing or
Pre-Emptive Action?

Brady Robards (Sociology, UTas): Scrolling Back on Facebook: Qualitative
Research into Social Media

Brian Simpson (Law, UNE): Legal Narratives of Childhood in the Digital Age:
Tensions and Contradictions in the Regulation of the Innocent, Autonomous
or Otherwise ‘Wicked Child’

Andrew Whelan (Sociology, UOW): What is Obscene Enough? Pretending to Not
Know -- Obscenity and Absurdity





*Call for Papers*



Abstracts are invited for 20-minute papers on the following or cognate
topics:



Classification and transmediation

The role of risk aversion in online regulation

The chill effects of government and university regulations on online
research

The impact of ‘place’ on online research

Relations between policy and media texts

The ethics of observation: who is watching who?

Media antagonism toward academic inquiry and the battle of the ‘experts’

Finding the right ‘frame’ for contentious topics

Cross-cultural comparisons of regulatory regimes

Auditing the audit culture: speaking back to the regulators



There are limited spaces for additional speakers. Please submit 200 word
abstracts via the online submission form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/14ivud7OLjQwkXvt0fEVxvv5pzlu7CW408A-vxLPcjIQ/viewform?usp=send_form
by July 1, 2015.

There are also limited spaces for non-presenters. To book a place or make
other inquiries, e-mail may be sent to uow.newmediaethics at gmail.com.
Participation is free of charge and the fully catered event will be held at
the University of Wollongong. Acknowledgement of acceptance will be sent by
July 15. Papers from the workshop will be considered for a special journal
edition.
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