LTEC Lab member Dr. Pascale Chapdelaine is the Lead guest editor of a special issue of the international peer-reviewed journal LAWS recently published "Media and Communication Theory and the Regulation of the Networked Society", with LTEC Lab member Dr. Vincent Manzerolle (U Windsor Department of Communication, Media and Film) Dr. Michael Darroch (York University Department of Cinema & Media Arts, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design) and Philip Morais (U Windsor JD 2021) as co-guest editors.
The collection of articles gathers the works of several academics worldwide who reflect on some of the biggest questions and challenges of our time: how do transnational digital media platforms, algorithms and big data shape commerce, politics, speech and mobilization or resistance on pressing issues such as climate change, the pandemic, elections, racial discrimination or social justice? How do transnational digital platforms redefine the role of our governments, our everyday lives, the citizenry? How do governments, private undertakings, institutions and citizens resort to, or respond to, this ultra-mediatized networked environment? To what extent have national borders become obsolete in this networked global village?
Building on the scholarship of Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan and others, as a point of departure to explore the regulation of new media, this Special Issue tackles several of these pressing questions in a post-colonialist, post-truth environment. Various theories about media, networks and borders at the intersection of law and regulation will better inform the goals that law and policy makers should pursue (or not). This is particularly timely as governments, private companies and citizens around the world face unprecedented challenges with flows of (dis)information about the global pandemic, hate speech and environmental crises.
The main themes of the collection are summarized in the Introductory piece co-authored by Dr. Pascale Chapdelaine and Dr. Vincent Manzerolle: “The Regulation of Media and Communications in the Borderless Networked Society”.
Several of the contributors to this special issue participated in a conference organized by Windsor Law LTEC Lab jointly with UWindsor SOCA in the fall 2019: Media & Space: The Regulation of Digital Platforms, New Media & Technologies Symposium.
The contributors to this special issue are:
Pascale Chapdelaine & Jaqueline McLeod Rogers “Contested Sovereignties: States, Media Platforms, Peoples, and the Regulation of Media Content and Big Data in the Networked Society” Laws 2021, 10(3), 66; https://doi.org/10.3390/laws10030066
Jeffrey Benjamin Meyers, “Toward a Post-Apocalyptic Rule of Law” Laws 2021, 10(3), 65; https://doi.org/10.3390/laws10030065
Andrey Miroshnichenko, “Media and Responsibility for Their Effects: Instrumental vs. Environmental Views” Laws 2021, 10(2), 48; https://doi.org/10.3390/laws10020048
Andrew Brian Chrystall, “Making Sense of Indigenous ⬄ Colonial Encounters: New Zealand’s Treaty of Waitangi in a Digital Age” Laws 2021, 10(2), 45; https://doi.org/10.3390/laws10020045
Elaine Kahn, “The Letters of Marshall McLuhan and Pierre Elliott Trudeau: Privacy/Private Matters” Laws 2021, 10(2), 42; https://doi.org/10.3390/laws10020042
Cynthia Nixon, Claire Konkes, Libby Lester and Kathleen Williams, “Mediated Visibility and Public Environmental Litigation: The Interplay between Inside and Outside Court during Environmental Conflict in Australia” Laws 2021, 10(2), 35; https://doi.org/10.3390/laws10020035