By: Jonathan Obar and Amit Schejter

The dialogue between academics and media reform advocates grows more robust and more tenacious each year. The day before Free Press welcomed thousands of passionate participants to this year’s National Conference for Media Reform, 140 academics and advocates from across the globe convened at the Hyatt Regency in Minneapolis to take part in an event entitled: Academic Research for Media Reform: A Symposium for Scholars – a forum where new research on media reform issues could be presented with the aim of encouraging stronger ties between the academic and advocacy communities. With more than fifty submissions this year, the acceptance process was highly competitive. Top papers from the conference will soon be published in a special issue of the Journal of Communication Inquiry.

The event opened with some exciting news. Conference organizer Amit Schejter (Penn State) introduced a group of distinguished scholars currently collaborating on a book that will outline a comprehensive telecommunications policy agenda for the incoming President of the United States. This agenda – and the practical steps needed to achieve it – will emphasize how contemporary information technologies can be used to promote democratic discourse, social responsibility and quality of life. More importantly, the agenda will also emphasize how these technologies can be made available to all Americans. Robert W. McChesney (Illinois), Ernest Wilson (USC), Philip Napoli (Fordham), Robert Frieden (Penn State), Krishna Jayakar (Penn State), Richard Taylor (Penn State), Kathryn Montgomery (American), Leonard Baynes (St. John’s) and Marvin Ammori (Nebraska), who were all at the conference, will be among the contributing authors. The book is scheduled to be released early in 2009; visit www.fact-wg.info for more details.

Following presentations by the book’s authors, eight panels addressed issues ranging from media ownership to FCC policymaking, network neutrality to sustaining independent media, international challenges to copyright. The desire to bridge the academic/advocacy gap for the purposes of influencing policy was central to many of the presentations. For example, Lauren Kogen (Penn) reviewed the Ford Foundation’s eight-year commitment to “developing and nourishing a research community for FCC inquiries.” Katie Gay (UNC-W) emphasized the importance of student activism in the process. In addition to talk of boundary-crossing, others like Colleen Mihal (Colorado) and William Kunz (Washington) exemplified the process, presenting scathing critiques of current FCC research and procedure.

The day concluded with key-note speaker Saskia Sassen, the Lynd Professor of Sociology and Member of the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University. Sassen presented a fascinating account of the dynamics and similarities between the powerful and the powerless, articulating how the relationship between both groups and the changing boundaries of legality are defined in a given society.

The Symposium for Scholars clearly demonstrated that while the ties between the academic and media reform advocacy communities are now stronger than ever, much more can be done. Special thanks goes to T.C. Corrigan (Penn State) and to the members of the program committee for their hard work and dedication: Alison Powell (Concordia), Bill Herman (Penn), Bob Handley (Texas), Itai Himmelboim (Minnesota), Jonathan Obar (Penn State), Jennifer Proffitt (Florida State), Justin Brown (Florida), Laura Stein (Texas), Leslie Regan Shade (Concordia), Lokman Tsui (Penn), Lou Rutigliano (Texas), Philip Napoli (Fordham), Stephen Anderson (Simon Fraser) and Zohar Kadmon Sella (Columbia).