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Jennifer Holt

Institutional Affiliation: 
Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies, UC Santa Barbara
Professional Bio: 

Jennifer Holt is Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. She is the author of Empires of Entertainment and the co-editor of Media Industries: History, Theory, and Method (2009); Connected Viewing: Selling, Sharing, and Streaming Media in the Digital Era (2013); and Distribution Revolution (2014). Her work has appeared in journals and anthologies including the Journal of Information Policy, Jump Cut, Moving Data, and Signal Traffic: Critical Studies of Media Infrastructure. Her current research explores media policy as it relates to global cloud infrastructure and digital distribution, and she is presently working on two monographs: Cloud Policy and Digital Markets. She is also a founding member of the Media Industries journal, the first peer-reviewed, multi-media, open-access online journal devoted to critical studies of media industries and institutions worldwide.

Area of Expertise: 

My area of expertise is in the areas of media regulation and policy, and the study of media industries. I am interested in how the infrastructure, networks, and platforms of communication are regulated, historically and presently. Much of my current work in digital media policy is interdisciplinary and has stemmed from a humanities orientation; I engage with visual materials and discourse as well but also conduct legal research and analyze economic/industrial trends. I am writing about current policy debates and regulations related to infrastructure, data storage, and digital platforms affecting the "shareability" and flow of media across the Internet. Specifically, I am examining the complexities of net neutrality regulation, data policies, and the international jurisdiction of remote data storage. I am interested in how regulatory policies designed for “the cloud” space have not been adapted to current cultural or technological conditions; as a result, these policies are failing to create a digital media landscape that fosters and supports a broadband ecosystem characterized by diversity, open access, and nondiscriminatory data flows. I am also actively writing about data security, privacy, and identity in the digital space.

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