Great Resource on How to Email a Professor!

Hi Folks! Note sure if any of you saw the controversy surrounding student professionalism at NYU last week, but I came across this website and wanted to share. If you are ever unsure how to email a professor, or what to say, this is a great resource. 

You think I'm mean? Check this out!

NYU Professor tells his student to "get your sh** together":

"A popular professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business replied to a student’s email in a way that is party jerkface but mostly, part sage life advice. Deadspin reports that a student walked into the 1st day of class an hour late and the professor told her to leave & come back to the next class. In the comments section, most people were surprised to find themselves siding with the professor, citing topics like the rudeness of interrupting 80 people who pay full tuition to the foolishness of  “shopping” 3 classes in the same time slot. The professor actually XXXX’d out the student’s name and emailed it to all of his students!"

Thoughts? 

Extra Credit!! Please join me for a conversation with South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool

Conversation with South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool

Folks: mark your calendars for an event I've organized on April 17th. Details below. I will award students who attend the event (from 6p-7:30p) five extra credit points on the third and final test. Please note, you have to RSVP to the email address below (cc me so I can ensure you receive credit). 

"On behalf of Georgia State University and the Carter Center, please join us at the Commerce Club on April 17 for a discussion with Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool on Civic Approaches to Religious Radicalism. Parking will be complimentary. More information about the event, including the evening’s schedule, a background video, and directions to the Commerce Club, can be found here. Starting at 6:00p, the Ambassador will discuss his country’s post-apartheid, community-based solutions to effectively manage to the problem of militant religious extremism without sacrificing the core values of due process, human rights, and social justice. The event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited. Please contact Dr. Abbas Barzegar at civicapproaches@gsu.edu to reserve a seat."

"How to Fix the Media Ownership Debate"

FOLKS: Re-posting this for those still thinking through your term paper topic. Perhaps of interest. 

From Steven Waldman, author of the FCC's report on the future information needs of communities (in the Columbia Journalism Report). 

"So instead of having a theological debate about consolidation—“good” vs. “evil”?—is it possible to create media policy that allows mergers that are likely to help the local media ecosystems and blocks those that are not? One possibility is that the FCC allow more companies to merge—giving them “waivers” from the ban—if they made a strong case that such a combination would have a demonstrable positive impact on the provision of local content, including (but not limited to) journalism. When the FCC presided over the NBC-Comcast merger, the companies pledged a variety of steps to improve local news and assist other organizations in the community that were doing so. The FCC could incorporate those kinds of voluntary conditions in other local mergers."

What do you think? This a great resource to help you think through your term paper topic and proposal!

Media Ownership Paper Resources

Hi Folks!

Lots of great resources out there to help get you moving on your final paper. First is this list of suggested readings from the UNC Center on Media & Policy. It is really terrific. And here you can find the report and transcript of their media ownership summit from earlier this year. Here is a summary of the event held at the Newseum on the same topic (I posted on the original event here). This is a fairly hot topic right now and there are plenty of interesting proposals floating around. I strongly encourage you to get started soon; this is not the type of assignment that can be done over one weekend.

Also, be sure to check out the list of resources included on the assignment handout (copied below), as well as your text book.

From the assignment handout: 


D. Linda Garcia and Ellen Surles, “Media Ownership and Communications: Enriching the Research Agenda,” Telecommunications Policy 31, no. 8–9 (October 2007): 473-492.

Robert W. McChesney, Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times (New Press, The, 2000).

Lee C. Jr Bollinger, “Freedom of the Press and Public Access: Toward a Theory of Partial Regulation of the Mass Media,” Michigan Law Review 75 (1977 1976): 1.

Lee C. Bollinger, The Tolerant Society (Oxford University Press, 1989)

George Glider, The Freedom Model of Telecommunications (The Progress and Freedom Foundation, 1995).

Robert W. McChesney, The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the Twenty-First Century, 1st Printing. (Monthly Review Press, 2004).

Michael Wolff, The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch (Broadway, 2008).

C. Edwin Baker, Media Concentration and Democracy: Why Ownership Matters, 1st ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2006).

Ben H. Bagdikian, The New Media Monopoly: A Completely Revised and Updated Edition With Seven New Chapters (Beacon Press, 2004).

Henry Jenkins, “The Cultural Logic of Media Convergence,” International Journal of Cultural Studies 7, no. 1 (March 1, 2004): 33 -43.

Lee C. Bollinger, Uninhibited, Robust, and Wide-open: a Free Press for a New Century (Oxford University Press, 2010).

Eli M. Noam, Media Ownership and Concentration in America (Oxford University Press, 2009).

Ben Scott, “Politics and Policy of Media Ownership, The,” American University Law Review 53 (2004 2003): 645.

Scott Cleland and Ira Brodsky, Search & Destroy: Why You Can’t Trust Google Inc., 1st ed. (Telescope Books, 2011).

Bruce M Owen, “Regulatory Reform: The Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the FCC Media Ownership Rules,” Law Review of Michigan State University Detroit College of Law 2003 (2003): 671.

L. P Hitchens, “Media Ownership and Control: A European Approach,” The Modern Law Review 57, no. 4 (July 1, 1994): 585-601.

Think intellectual property is the cornerstone of US economic prosperity? Think again...

At least according to two economists with the St. Louis Federal Reserve. Here is their paper outlining how the current patent system is defunct and has a negative impact on innovation and productivity in the US economy. 

Internet policy supplemental reading...

For next week, be sure to read Hopkins (chapter 10) and Lawrence Lessig's (1999) law review on the modalities of regulation (Citation: Lawrence Lessig. "The Law of the Horses." Harvard Law Review, Vol. 113, No. 2, Dec. 1999, pp. 501-549). It is fun, I promise!  

Samsung, Intellectual Property and their Super Bowl Advertisement

Check out Samsung's 2013 Super Bowl ad here (hat tip to Jes Hallock for forwarding to me): 

Will be interesting to see if Apple responds....stay tuned! 

Twitter's Role in Promoting Free Speech Abroad

What happens when another country finds Twitter guilty of violating its hate speech laws, requiring the company to remove banned content? Probably not what you think....read all about Twitter's "country-withheld content” policy here. 

What do you think about the growing use of Twitter for spreading "hate" speech? Have any of you noticed an increase in vicious tweets lately? Let's discuss in class! 

UPDATE: Also, Twitter released its version of Google's transparency report yesterday. Check it out here. Any idea why there are so many more requests for Google's data compared to Twitter's?

Terrific Intro to Media Ownership

The New America Foundation, along with the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy hosted an event on the state and importance of media ownership policy today. I would suggest everyone take the time to watch this event online. (You can also watch the event here.)

The term paper (worth 35% of your final grade) asks each student to write a policy brief to the FCC recommending a specific reform to the existing media ownership statutes. This event us loaded with ideas, and should help each of you in conceptualizing how you will approach this assignment. I recommend folks watch the event, thinking about one question in particular: "why does media ownership policy matter to me?"

New Transparency Report from Google....

From Google:

User data requests of all kinds have increased by more than 70 percent since 2009, as you can see in our new visualizations of overall trends. In total, we received 21,389 requests for information about 33,634 users from July through December 2012.

 What policies allow, or restrict, our government's ability to legally request information about us from Google (and others)? Let's discuss!

Should the Internet be treated as a public utility (or a public good)?

Bloomberg makes a persuasive case here:

If the U.S. had a fully fiber-based network, Hollywood blockbusters could be downloaded in 12 seconds, video conferencing would become routine, and every household could see 3D and Super HD images. Americans could be connected instantly to their co-workers, their families, their teachers and their health-care monitors. 

To make this happen, though, the U.S. needs to move to a utility model, based on the assumption that all Americans require fiber-optic Internet access at reasonable prices.
How much would it cost to bring fiber to the homes of all Americans? Corning Inc. (GLW), the American glass manufacturer, and others have estimated that it would take between $50 billion and $90 billion. 

The Internet has taken the place of the telephone as the world’s basic, general-purpose, two-way communication medium. All Americans need high-speed access, just as they need clean water, clean air and electricity. But they have allowed a naive belief in the power and beneficence of the free market to cloud their vision. As things stand, the U.S. has the worst of both worlds: no competition and no regulation.

What do you think? We'll discuss internet policy in a few weeks, so something to consider.

HBO Documentary: Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech

Hi Folks! Some of you have asked about the documentary I showed a part of in yesterday's 430-700p section. Here is a link to the documentary on YouTube, and here is a link to the DVD on Amazon. (Students in the Monday-Wednesday section: don't panic, we'll get to this on Wednesday).