The platformized internet: Debates around the governance of digital communication platforms

Monday, March 18, 2019

Noon 1 p.m.

USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism (ASC), 207


This presentation locates debates around the regulation of digital platforms in the context of the wider crisis of trust in social, political and civic institutions. In considering a renewed agenda for digital communication platform regulation, five questions inevitably arise that will be considered in this paper: What is a platform, and what is a communication platform? What are (and are not) the primary matters of concern? Are these communication and media policy issues? Do the platform companies themselves need to be engaged in their own regulation? Can we balance nation-state regulation with global communication without furthering internet fragmentation?

Terry Flew is Professor of Communication and Creative Industries at the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. He is the author of 11 books (three edited), including Understanding Global Media, Politics, Media and Democracy in Australia, Media Economics and Global Creative Industries. He has authored 59 book chapters, 86 refereed journal articles, and 16 reports and research monographs. He is the current president of the International Communication Association (ICA) from 2019-20, and organizer of the 69th ICA Annual Conference in Washington DC in 2019. He has been an executive board member of the International Communication Association since 2013, and was president of the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association (ANZCA) in 2009-10.

Lunch will be served. No RSVP needed.