Prof. Dr. Natascha Just, Alena Birrer, MA, Danya He, MSc, Media & Internet Governance Division, Department of Communication and Media Research, University of Zurich
Via Zoom | RSVP Here | or email quello@msu.edu
Internationally dominant Internet platforms have established themselves as crucial intermediaries for opinion-forming content and have disrupted national media and communications markets. This raises new questions about the control of opinion power and media concentration in times of platformization. This talk presents findings from a cross-national study on the control of market and opinion power in five countries (Germany, Switzerland, Austria, UK, USA). It scrutinizes the current state of media-concentration control and the extent to which Internet platforms are addressed in recent regulatory and competition law reforms. Overall, traditional media-concentration control is not prioritized, especially when compared to other policy issues such as privacy and data protection, the regulation of hate speech and disinformation, and competition in platform markets more generally. In view of increasingly complex media systems, further approaches to safeguarding media plurality gain relevance and questions regarding the relationship between regulation and competition law re-emerge.
Prof. Dr. Natascha Just
Natascha Just is Professor of Communication and Chair of the Media and Internet Governance Division at the Department of Communication and Media Research of the University of Zurich. Prior to that she was an Associate Professor at the Department of Media and Information, Michigan State University, USA. She continues to be affiliated with the Quello Center as a Research Fellow. Natascha Just’s current research and teaching interests are related to communications policy and Internet governance. They center on competition policy, market power control, changing governance structures, governance of and by technology, algorithms on the Internet, and Internet platforms.
Alena Birrer is a Research and Teaching Associate in the Media and Internet Governance Division at the Department of Communication and Media Research of the University of Zurich. Her current research and teaching interests are related to media and Internet governance. They include media concentration and market power control, privacy and digital identity, data governance and communication rights.
Danya He is a Research and Teaching Associate in the Media and Internet Governance Division at the Department of Communication and Media Research of the University of Zurich at the Department of Communication and Media Research of the University of Zurich. Her current research and teaching interests are related to media and Internet governance. They include media concentration and market power control, platform governance, accountability and copyright.