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PP 599
A Children’s Rights Perspective on Self-Regulation of New Advertising Formats
V. Verdoodt
1
, E. Lievens
2
1
KU Leuven, Centre for IT and IP Law, Leuven, Belgium
2
Ghent University, Law & Technology, Gent, Belgium
New advertising formats such as behavioural advertising, for which children’s personal data are processed, or advergames, which integrate editorial and
commercial content, may have a significant impact on children’s rights, including their fundamental right to privacy, access to (high-quality) information,
freedom of expression, protection against information and material injurious to their well-being and protection from economic exploitation (United Nation
Convention on the Rights of the Child, UNCRC). It has been emphasised in Unicef’s Children’s rights and Business Principles (2012) that companies must
ensure that communications and marketing do not have an adverse impact on children’s rights. In the advertising sector, self-regulation has traditionally
played an important (complementary) role.The International Chamber of Commerce has drafted a Code Advertising and Marketing Communication Practice
(Consolidated ICC Code), and in many countries self-regulatory bodies observe compliance with the principles of this Code. The added value of a self-regula‑
tory framework lies in its flexibility and adaptability (to technological change), a higher degree of expertise and a relatively low cost. However, at the same
time, self-regulatory mechanisms have been considered to suffer from low levels of transparency and accountability and the fact that private interests
are put before the public interest. Moreover, the degree of legal certainty is sometimes low, resulting in a decrease in democratic quality of regulation.
Considering these drawbacks of self-regulation, this article questions whether something as fundamental as children’s rights should be safeguarded by
self-regulation to such a significant extent. First, the paper will assess the applicability of the current self-regulatory framework to new, digital advertising
formats.The ICC Code will be examined, as well as the national self-regulatory frameworks of the United Kingdom and Belgium. Second, this self-regulatory
framework will be assessed from a children’s rights perspective, evaluating the degree of protection and participation, and compliance with essential prin‑
ciples such as accountability and transparency. This analysis will take into account the UNCRC and general comments of the Children’s Rights Committee,
case-law, as well as scholarly literature, both with regard to children’s rights and (characteristics of) self-regulation. Attention will also be paid to the fine
line between persuasion and manipulation of new advertising formats, and the impact the effects thereof may have on children’s rights.
PP 600
Interrelation of Media, Telecomms and Inetgovernance Policies: Cases of EU Eastern Partnership Countries
A. Paziuk
1
1
Taras Shevchenko National University, International law, Kyiv, Ukraine
The paper is focused on interrelation and interdependence of communication policies in the EU Eastern Partnership countries. Eastern Partnership countries
are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. While some researchers see such countries as periphery of the global system and as
field of strategic battle for geopolitical influence between Western countries and Russia, local political decisions demonstrate some resistance to intrusion
of foreign social values and mistrust to both Brussels and Moscow. The way each of the mentioned countries choose to safe national interests in this battle
are of particular interest. Reforms in media, telecomms and Internet governance in this countries are mainly oriented (proclaimed) on closer integration
with EU and WTO standards, but strongly influenced by dominating Russia's ownership and investments in infrustructures. In the papers we closer look at
the trends in media, telecomms and InetGovernance national policies in this countries to determine consequences of geopolitical influence on national
general communication policies.
PP 601
Free to Hate? A Comparative Analysis of British and Italian Ultra-Right Online Media: Characteristics and Policy Implications
C. Padovani
1
1
Southern illinois university carbondale, radio television and digital media, Carbondale, United States Pacific Island Wildli
The rising visibility of ultra-right parties and social movements in Europe, continues to be reason for concern. In this paper I build upon existing literature
(Cammaerts 2008; Downing and Husband 2006) to shed light on the media activism and media operations of some of these groups and the policy implica‑
tions of their media operations. In some regards, these media can be considered“radical media”in that they oppose mainstreammedia with their anti-sys‑
tem rhetoric. Yet, their media strategies foster a message of racism and hatred. Scholars have long debated the“double-speaking”nature of post-WarWorld
II ultra-right groups (Feldman and Jackson, 2014), arguing that they would use an acceptable language in public but then“speak the truth to the hardcore”
in private. In this paper, I argue that double-speaking is becoming even more complex in the age of interactive media: indeed, although many of the media
‘messages’ of ultra-right groups might seem innocuous, they set in motion discursive events that, thanks to the audience members who intervene, soon
flare up. Therefore, I argue that the communicative event in its totality should be taken into consideration and, as such, be considered a form of hate speech
rather than protected under freedom of expression provisions. In order to make this case, the paper presents the results of a study of ultra-right media
activism by social movements in the United Kingdom and Italy. Specifically, I focus on selected media artifacts (facebook postings, webpages) of Forza
Nuova (Italy) and Britain First (UK). The paper takes a case study approach to analyze their media in preparation for anti-immigrant mobilizations in Sep‑
tember 2015. The innovative aspect of this research is that the analysis focuses not only on the ‘messages’ from the various groups, but also on audiences’
responses. In doing so, the study moves away from the original critique against ultra-right media as top-down and hierarchic (Atton 2006), and focuses on
the role of audiences’activism in reinforcing ultra-right ideologies. The theoretical framework is the history of contemporary ultra-right movements (Ignazi
2006). The paper also draws from the encoding/decoding framework of analysis (Hall 1980) to shed light on both moments of the communicative event
(the original ‘message’ as well as audiences’ comments). Some of the questions are: What role do audiences play in the making of the discursive event?
Does audience online activism differ in the two countries? What are the implications for policy makers and internet/social media providers in tackling this
problem? The methodological approach is critical discourse analysis (Wodak 2003; van Dijk 1988). Bibliography list (in progress)