[Air-L] Call for papers] Dossier Internet Concentration and Regulation

[Helena Martins]

The journal EPTIC (International Electronic Journal of Political Economy of
Information, Communication, and Culture) calls for submissions for the
thematic dossier “*Internet Concentration and Regulation*”, to be published
in the third volume of 2021 (December). The publication will be done in
partnership with OBSERVACOM.

The dossier will be coordinated by Patricia Maurício (PhD), Rodrigo Moreno
Marques (PhD), and Ana Bizberge (PhD), content editor of OBSERVACOM.
Interested parties must submit articles by August 20th, 2021.

The problem of concentration, which accompanies the development of
capitalism, has historically been addressed by the Political Economy of
Communication, Information, and Culture.

Associated with digitalization, the convergence between audiovisual,
telecommunications, and informatics have been reducing the differences
between sectors of the economy, allowing main agents to act beyond their
original markets. In such a context, the concentration in the sphere of
communication and information increases.

Many and different works analyze the market of television, convergence, and
the expansion of concentration. Given the recent transformations in the
realm of the internet, fundamental discussions emerge on the digital
monopolies and their effects upon the exercise of rights, such as upon the
right to freedom of expression, as well as on the competition and
innovation.

Through the dossier *Internet Concentration and Regulation*, organized by
the journal EPTIC in partnership with OBSERVACOM, we aim to reflect upon
the current internet concentration, its impacts, and possibilities of
overcoming it through regulation and counter-hegemonic practices.

The concentration of platforms has impacts on the creation and circulation
of content in society.

Google and Facebook are emblematic examples of main actors of the digital
environment: they concentrate the access to informative content and digital
marketing; message services and online social networks; the market of web
browsers and search engines. Besides that, they, increasingly, become huge
providers of internet access (building undersea cables), among other
aspects.

Furthermore, through contracts between telecommunications companies and
corporations that commercialize services and contents, new restrictions to
socially produced content arise, as shown by the zero-rating practices
(access to some services/content without data consumption) by mobile phone
companies.

Moreover, in the audiovisual sector, the merger processes of Disney and
Fox, WarnerMedia (AT&T)-Discovery, or Amazon-MGM, demonstrate the
tendencies of "convergent concentration" by large traditional players as
well as by technology companies that seek to position themselves also in
the video streaming market, globally led by Netflix.

For this call for papers, we expect articles that propose discussions on
the following issues:

- Concentration on search services, social media, and messaging, as well as
its impacts on content creation and circulation.

- Regulation proposals to face the power of platforms. Public regulation of
platforms on content moderation. Challenges to freedom of expression.
Algorithmic moderation and human intervention. User rights, terms, and
conditions of use and international standards.

- Platform self-regulation: how platforms control user content through
terms of service, community norms, and algorithms.

- Business models, value chains and sustainability. Relationship between
traditional media and digital corporations, their characteristics, and
proposals to address imbalances.

- Concentration of video streaming services offer. Convergent mergers;
strategies of traditional actors in the streaming market; case studies of
global internet actors.

- Regulation of audiovisual services on the internet: national cases,
regional and global agendas. Reach and competence of regulators.
Encouraging content production, promoting diversity, visibility criteria,
among others.

- Convergence, platformization, and concentration: concentration on access
infrastructure, platforms as connectivity providers; agreements between
infrastructure and application operators, zero-rating practices.

Edition: Sept-Dec. - vol. 23, n. 3, 2021.

Deadline for submission of articles: August 20th, 2021.


https://seer.ufs.br/index.php/eptic/announcement/view/327


-- 
*Helena Martins*
Professora da Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC)
Editora da Revista Eptic <https://seer.ufs.br/index.php/eptic>
Líder do Telas - Laboratório de Pesquisa em Economia, Tecnologia e
Políticas da Comunicaçã <http://dgp.cnpq.br/dgp/espelhogrupo/570544>o
<http://dgp.cnpq.br/dgp/espelhogrupo/570544>
<http://dgp.cnpq.br/dgp/espelhogrupo/570544>