Conference | Breaking the News, Free Speech & Democracy in the Age of Platform Monopoly

Open Markets Institute and the Tow Center at the Columbia School of Journalism gather a variety of speakers for a multi-panel conference on how the power and business models of large online and telecom intermediaries affect the ability of reporters and editors to gather and distribute news in the 21st century.

How do we ensure that America’s journalists are fully independent, and that they are robustly supported to report the news, both nationally and locally, that is so vital to sustaining our democracy?

Check out all four of our panel discussions exploring this question below along with keynote speeches from:

  • Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ranking Member of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee

  • Makan Delrahim, Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, Department of Justice

  • Congressman David Cicilline (D-RI), Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law

  • Mark Thompson, CEO, The New York Times

  • Robert Thomson, CEO, News Corporation


Panel 1 - The New Gatekeepers: Journalism in the Era of Platform Monopoly

Keynote Speech:

Makan Delrahim, Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, Department of Justice

Read his speech transcript here.

Panelists:

Jason Kint, CEO, Digital Content Next


Julia Angwin, Author of Dragnet Nation and former Senior Reporter, ProPublica


Ben Smith, Editor-in-Chief, Buzzfeed


Lina Khan, Author of Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox and Director of Legal Policy, Open Markets Institute

Panel 2 - The Effects of Information Bottlenecks: Propaganda, Misinformation, Loss of Privacy

Keynote Speech:

Robert Thomson, CEO, News Corporation

Read his speech transcript here.

Mark Thompson, CEO, The New York Times

Read his speech transcript here.

PanelISTS:

Roger McNamee, Managing Director, Elevation Partners


Marc Rotenberg, President, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)


Sally Hubbard, Senior Editor, The Capitol Forum


Esha Bhandari, Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project


Rana Foroohar, Global Business Columnist, Financial Times, and Global Economic Analyst, CNN

Panel 3 - The Effects of Information Bottlenecks: The Decline of Local and Special Interest News

Keynote Speech:

Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ranking Member of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee

PanelISTS:

Janet Hasson, Regional Vice President & Publisher, The Providence Journal


Terrance Egger, Publisher, Philadelphia Media Network


Ryan Kelly, Pulitzer Prize Winner and former Photojournalist at The Daily Progress


Stephenetta Harmon, Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder


Emily Bell, Professor of Professional Practice & Director, Tow Center for Digital Journalism, Columbia University

Panel 4 - Private and Public Pathways to Independent and Diverse Journalism in the 21st Century

Keynote SPEECH:

Congressman David Cicilline (D-RI), Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law


PANELISTS:

Richard John, Professor of History & Communications, Columbia Journalism School


Tom Wheeler, Former Chairman, Federal Communications Commission


Christian D’Cunha, Head of Private Office of Giovanni Buttarelli, European Data Protection Supervisor


Olivier Sylvain, Associate Professor of Law, Fordham University


Jason White, Director of News Partnerships, Facebook


Jonathan Kanter, Partner, Paul/Weiss, Antitrust Practice


Zephyr Teachout, Author of Corruption in America and Associate Professor of Law, Fordham University