Fiona Martin: Do we need more social media regulation?

In the wake of Google and Facebook’s threats to reduce access to Australian news, and the passing of the News Media bargaining Code, how can we manage the power of social media platforms into the future?

Fiona will look at the key ways in which platforms have transformed our communications landscape, who has been disadvantaged in the process and what we still need to do about it. Most urgently she argues, we need new measures to address violence online and attacks on women and minority groups.

Bio

Fiona studies the uses, politics and regulation of online media and their implications for media industry change. She is the author of Mediating the Conversation (Routledge, 2021), co-author of Sharing News Online (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) and co-author and editor of The Value of Public Service Media (Nordicom, 2014).

She is currently a chief investigator on the ARC funded Discovery project Platform Governance: Rethinking internet regulation as media policy 2019-2022, the Facebook Content Policy Research on Social Media Platforms award: Regulating Hate Speech in the Asia Pacific and the UNESCO/International Center for Journalists Online Harassment Project. Fiona is the Vice President Research of the Journalism Education & Research Association of Australia and an editorial board member of Digital Journalism.

Also speaking at this location at 6:00pm is Nicki Hutley.

About Shakespeare Hotel

The Shakespeare Hotel (affectionately known as “The Shakey” by locals) is a Surry Hills institution. The building has remained practically unchanged since doors were opened in 1879, making it a rare time capsule of old-school pub culture. Inside you’ll find an eclectic mix of locals, some who have been drinking at the Shakey for 50 years.