Monday November 3, 2003
12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
Room 80 (Moot Courtroom)
Free and Open to all!
Lunch Served
Dr. Cooper will discuss, within the framework of First Amendment jurisprudence and rigorous economic analysis, the continuing need for structural limits on media ownership to promote democratic discourse. The key topics will be:
* Economic forces in mass media markets;
* Increasing commercialism, concentration, consolidation and conglomeration;
* The Internet’s effect on the alteration of sources of news and information;
* The relationship between relaxation of media ownership limits and loss of diversity.
Criticizing the proposal by the Federal Communications Commission to virtually eliminate current rules limiting ownership, Dr. Cooper will propose media merger standards that promote the “widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources” as well as vigorously competitive media markets.
About the Speaker
Dr. Cooper holds a Ph.D. from Yale University and is a former Yale University and Fulbright Fellow. He is Director of Research at the Consumer Federation of America where he is responsible for analysis and advocacy in the areas of telecommunications, media, digital rights, economic and energy policy. He is a Fellow at the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society and the Columbia University Institute for Tele-Information.
He has published numerous articles in trade and scholarly journals including recent law review articles on digital society issues. His most recent book is MEDIA OWNERSHIP AND DEMOCRACY IN THE DIGITAL INFORMATION AGE (Center for Internet & Society, Stanford University, 2003).
Dr. Cooper has provided expert testimony in more than 250 cases for public interest clients including Attorneys General, People’s Counsels, and citizen interveners before state and federal agencies, courts and legislators in four dozen jurisdictions in the U.S. and Canada.