[Air-L] CFP - The Role of Advocacy in Media and Telecom Policy

[Richard Taylor]

Call for Paper Proposals

The Role of Advocacy in Media and Telecom Policy

A by-invitation experts' workshop
New America Foundation 
September 29-October 1, 2013

What is the role of advocacy in the formation of media and telecom policy
and how do we study the engagement of advocates in policy change? Scholars
have studied the work of media policy advocates analyzing their framing
practices, mobilizing strategies, and how they create (or hinder) political
opportunities for policy reform. There seems to be a growing need to study
the structural, cultural, and cognitive factors that shape the work of media
policy advocates, the processes by which they build capacities, and the
impacts of their work on the policies they try to shape, and on inclusive
and democratic media governance structures. Should media and telecom policy
advocacy be seen as central to the "laboring of communication" (Mosco &
McKerger, 2008), a critical form of knowledge work that seeks to redraw the
material, symbolic, and normative boundaries defining media fields and
practices, or are they merely another "pressure group" whose impact needs to
be evaluated in the analysis of the policy process? Does policy advocacy
labor serve only a taken-for-granted conception about the policy process or
does it challenge and change such conceptualizations? Can the notion of
policy advocacy work refocus attention on institutional pressures faced by
advocates and researchers of media and telecom policy? 

The Institute for Information Policy at Penn State University, the Center
for Public Policy and Administration at the University of Massachusetts, and
the New America Foundation are pleased to announce this call for paper
proposals discussing the role of citizens, grassroots organizations,
community organizers, action researchers, practitioner-advocates, consumer
interest advocates and any other form of advocacy in the media and
communications policy field and their work in this field. 

Authors of the selected papers will be invited to present and discuss them
during a 2 day by-invitation-only experts workshop designed to bring
together up to a dozen experts to be held at the New America Foundation in
Washington, DC between September 29-October 1, 2013. This workshop is part
of a series of events focused on "Making Policy Research Accessible,"
organized by the IIP, with the support of the Ford Foundation and the Media
Democracy Fund. (For programs of previous workshops see:
https://blogs.comm.psu.edu/iip/?page_id=24). Presenters at the workshop will
be invited to submit their completed papers for review by the Journal of
Information Policy (www.jip-online.org).

Topics of papers may include, but are not limited to issues such as:
. Methodologies for the assessment of capacity building and/or policy
advocacy projects. 
. Analysis of the configuration of advocacy networks and advocacy work.
. Case studies assessing policy advocacy efforts and initiatives
. Theories of policy advocacy and evaluation.
. Impacts of advocacy and activism on changes in media and telecom policy.
. Proposals for meaningful indicators and frameworks of policy advocacy
impacts.
. Comparative case studies of advocacy training and capacity-building
programs and activities.
. Evaluation of policy advocacy work focused on historically unserved or
underserved communities.
. Assessment of policy advocacy initiatives directed at community and civil
society institutions
. Historical assessments and lessons learned from previous policy advocacy
battles. 
. Philanthropic and practitioner roles and perspectives on policy advocacy
challenges and solutions.
. Case studies of academic-advocate-practitioner collaborations.
. The niche of media activists within the political economy of U.S.
media/telecom policy.
. Funding and disclosure in media advocacy and collaborations with political
organizations.
. Policies to support media policy advocacy and organizations.
. What are the obstacles to successful media policy advocacy?
. "Best practices" for citizen media policy activist groups
. The role of social media in the process of policy advocacy.

Abstracts of up to 500 words and a short bio of the author(s) should be
submitted to pennstateiip at psu.edu by July 31, 2013. Please write
IIPNAFCCAMTP: YOUR NAME in the subject line. Accepted presenters will be
notified by August 15, 2013.