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.
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.
