Scholars@Duke
Philip Michael Napoli

Philip Michael Napoli

James R. Shepley Distinguished Professor of Public Policy
Sanford School of Public Policy
philip.napoli@duke.edu
143 Sanford Building, Box 90245, Durham, NC 27708
143 Sanford Building, Box 90245, Durham, NC 27708
Office hours Tuesdays, 12:30 -- 2:30 and by appointment  

Selected Publications

In pursuit of ignorance: The institutional assault on disinformation and hate speech research

Journal Article Information Society · January 1, 2025 This article examines ongoing efforts to discourage disinformation and hate speech research in the U.S. These initiatives originate from a variety of institutional actors, including digital platforms, congressional committees, state attorneys general, and ... Full text Cite

On moving fast and breaking things.. again: social media’s lessons for generative AI governance

Journal Article Information Communication and Society · January 1, 2025 Generative AI systems are increasingly being employed globally, bringing with them both tremendous promise and substantial potential for harm. As is often the case, governance initiatives are lagging behind technological diffusion. This article looks to th ... Full text Cite

Epistemic Rights, Information Inequalities, and Public Policy

Chapter · January 1, 2024 This chapter provides an overview of the range of information inequalities that are fundamentally connected with the notion of epistemic rights and considers the various ways that public policy has—or could—address these inequalities. As this chapter illus ... Full text Cite

Media Policy for an Informed Citizenry: Revisiting the Information Needs of Communities for Democracy in Crisis

Journal Article Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science · May 1, 2023 This volume of The ANNALS revisits and updates a call made by scholars in the early 2010s for public policy to respond to the market failure of local news. Organized into four parts—policy, supply, demand, and adaptation—this volume is committed to the pro ... Full text Cite

What Is Media Policy?

Journal Article Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science · May 1, 2023 This article offers a definition of media policy and, through a discussion of specific areas of public policy, describes the scope of media policy as an area of potential government intervention. I argue for a more expansive conceptualization of media poli ... Full text Cite

CONCLUSION

Chapter · January 1, 2023 In this chapter, we summarize some of the key findings of the previous chapters of this volume to draw broader conclusions. We also rearticulate the purpose of this collection: making the concept of news “quality” more tangible and encouraging other resear ... Full text Cite

INTRODUCTION

Chapter · January 1, 2023 The role of digital platforms in societal information flows has been the subject of increasing concern and controversy in recent years. As services like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok reach ever more broadly across societies and burrow ever more de ... Full text Cite

GOVERNMENT INTERVENTIONS INTO NEWS QUALITY

Chapter · January 1, 2023 This chapter explores how the notion of news quality has been incorporated into contemporary media policy discussions and interventions. This chapter focuses on three national contexts: the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. This chapter pay ... Full text Cite

NEWS QUALITY IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Book · January 1, 2023 This book brings together a diverse, international array of contributors to explore the topics of news “quality” in the online age and the relationships between news organizations and enormously influential digital platforms such as Facebook, Google, and T ... Full text Cite

Social media for public health: Reaping the benefits, mitigating the harms.

Journal Article Health promotion perspectives · January 2023 With more than 4.26 billion social media users worldwide, social media has become a primary source of health information, exchange, and influence. As its use has rapidly expanded, social media has proven to be a "doubled-edged sword," with considerable ben ... Full text Cite

Social media platforms as public trustees: An approach to the disinformation problem

Journal Article · January 1, 2022 This chapter explores the public trustee concept as a relevant governance framework for social media platforms, with a specific focus on disinformation and the U.S. context. Specifically, this chapter considers whether the public trustee governance model t ... Cite

The platform beat: Algorithmic watchdogs in the disinformation age

Journal Article European Journal of Communication · August 1, 2021 As digital platforms have come to play a central role in the news and information ecosystem, a new realm of watchdog journalism has emerged – the platform beat. Journalists on the platform beat report on the operation, use and misuse of social media platfo ... Full text Cite

Back from the dead (again): The specter of the Fairness Doctrine and its lesson for social media regulation

Journal Article Policy and Internet · June 1, 2021 In the United States, debates about political bias in the content curation and moderation practices of social media platforms have spilled over into the policy realm, rekindling conversations about the Fairness Doctrine and its potential utility in possibl ... Full text Cite

The symbolic uses of platforms: The politics of platform governance in the United States

Journal Article Journal of Digital Media and Policy · June 1, 2021 Unlike many other countries around the world, the United States has taken relatively little substantive action in the realm of platform governance, despite the United States being directly impacted by occurrences such as Russian interference in the 2016 el ... Full text Cite

Revisiting the Rationales for Media Regulation: The Quid Pro Quo Rationale and the Case for Aggregate Social Media User Data as Public Resource

Chapter · January 1, 2021 In this chapter, we explore the rationales that have traditionally justified media regulation in the United States and argue that the quid pro quo rationale, which has accompanied the treatment of the spectrum as a public resource in broadcast regulation, ... Full text Cite

Computational social science: On measurement.

Journal Article Science (New York, N.Y.) · December 2020 Full text Cite

Connecting Journalism and Public Policy: New Concerns and Continuing Challenges

Journal Article Digital Journalism · July 2, 2020 This Introduction to this special issue on Policy Issues in Digital Journalism explores the reasons why this is a particularly important time for scholars to be exploring policy issues in digital journalism, as well as the reasons why, in some national con ... Full text Cite

What social media platforms can learn from audience measurement: Lessons in the self-regulation of “black boxes”

Journal Article First Monday · December 2, 2019 The widespread concerns about the misuses and negative effects of social media platforms have prompted a range of governance responses, including preliminary efforts toward self-regulatory models. Building upon these initiatives, this paper looks to the se ... Full text Cite

User Data as Public Resource: Implications for Social Media Regulation

Journal Article Policy and Internet · December 1, 2019 Revelations about the misuse and insecurity of user data gathered by social media platforms have renewed discussions about how best to characterize property rights in user data. At the same time, revelations about the use of social media platforms to disse ... Full text Cite

Place/Space and the Challenges Facing Local Journalism and Local Journalism Research

Journal Article Journalism and Communication Monographs · June 1, 2019 Full text Cite

Re-evaluating the long tail: Implications for audiovisual diversity on the internet

Chapter · January 1, 2019 This chapter evaluates the long tail theory, more than a dozen years after it was first articulated as a model for the digital media economy. As this chapter illustrates, both the research evidence and the evolution of industry practice have demonstrated t ... Full text Cite

Problems and Solutions for American Political Coverage: Journalistic self-critique in the wake of the 2016 presidential election

Journal Article Journalism Practice · November 26, 2018 Drawing on Shoemaker and her colleagues’ five levels of analysis, i.e. the individual, routine, organization, institutional, and social system levels, this study examines news media’s post-election self-examination. This study uses natural language process ... Full text Cite

Journalism History, Web Archives, and New Methods for Understanding the Evolution of Digital Journalism

Journal Article Digital Journalism · October 21, 2018 Archived webpages are a critical source of data for understanding the current state of the news media industry, as well as how the industry has changed over time. Dramatic changes in the news media industry in recent decades have occurred in tandem with th ... Full text Cite

An approach to assessing the robustness of local news provision

Chapter · September 3, 2018 This chapter addresses the analytical challenge in local news provision. It presents a multi-level methodological framework for assessing local journalism and the extent to which it addresses communities’ critical information needs. Each media outlet’s hom ... Full text Cite

Big data and media management

Chapter · January 1, 2018 Like many other sectors of economic, political, and cultural life, the media industries are rapidly embracing and exploring the range of analytic and strategic possibilities afforded by big data. Perhaps more so than many other industry sectors, the media ... Full text Cite

Book Review: Democracy’s Detectives: The Economics of Investigative Journalism, by James T. Hamilton

Journal Article Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly · September 2017 Full text Cite

Why media companies insist they're not media companies, why they're wrong, and why it matters

Journal Article First Monday · May 1, 2017 A common position amongst social media platforms and online content aggregators is their resistance to being characterized as media companies. Rather, companies such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter have regularly insisted that they should be thought of pu ... Full text Cite

Local Journalism and the Information Needs of Local Communities: Toward a scalable assessment approach

Journal Article Journalism Practice · April 21, 2017 This paper presents a three-level conceptual and methodological framework for assessing local journalism and the extent to which it meets community information needs. This research grows from frequent calls from policymakers, foundations, and advocacy grou ... Full text Cite

Portrait of the Online Local News Audience

Journal Article Digital Journalism · January 2, 2017 With resources for local journalism outlets on the decline and the use of digital tools on the rise, there has been greater consideration of the audience among journalists, editors, and foundations. Recent research on news audiences has focused on the indu ... Full text Cite

Evaluating Strategic Approaches to Competitive Displacement: The Case of the U.S. Newspaper Industry

Journal Article Journal of Media Economics · January 2, 2017 The concept of competitive displacement is central to theories of media evolution, and the threat that the Internet has posed to printed newspapers provides an ongoing case study on the topic. In particular, this situation offers an opportunity to examine ... Full text Open Access Cite

Requiem for the long tail: Towards a political economy of content aggregation and fragmentation

Journal Article International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics · September 1, 2016 This article revisits the long tail phenomenon, a dozen years after it was first articulated as a model for the digital media economy. As this article illustrates, both the research evidence and the evolution of industry practice have demonstrated that the ... Full text Open Access Cite

Reconfiguring the Audience Commodity: The Institutionalization of Social TV Analytics as Market Information Regime

Journal Article Television and New Media · March 1, 2016 Changes in the ways that audiences use television, and the ways in which such usage can be measured, raise the possibility of a transformation of the audience commodity, and the currency that fuels the audience marketplace. Specifically, it appears at this ... Full text Cite

Special Issue Introduction: Big Data and Media Management

Journal Article Jmm International Journal on Media Management · January 2, 2016 Full text Cite

Second class netizens: Race and the emerging mobile internet underclass

Chapter · January 1, 2016 An important question to pose as digital divide challenges evolve is the extent to which mobile devices close gaps in Internet access among demographic groups. Race has traditionally been a prominent dimension of the digital divide, with African Americans ... Full text Cite

Social media and the public interest: Governance of news platforms in the realm of individual and algorithmic gatekeepers

Journal Article Telecommunications Policy · January 1, 2015 This article seeks to identify the basic contours of how the notion of the public interest is taking shape in the realm of social media. Drawing upon social media governance discourse and research on the dynamics of how social media platforms are being use ... Full text Cite

The Emerging Mobile Internet Underclass: A Critique of Mobile Internet Access

Journal Article Information Society · October 20, 2014 This article provides a critical comparative analysis of mobile versus personal computer (PC)-based forms of Internet access. Drawing from an interdisciplinary body of literature, it illustrates a wide range of ways in which mobile Internet access offers l ... Full text Cite

Internet and mobile ratings panels

Chapter · May 27, 2014 This chapter examines how Internet (PC and mobile) ratings panels are constructed, managed, and utilized. We provide an overview of the history and evolution of Internet/mobile ratings panels and examines the methodological challenges associated with creat ... Full text Cite

Automated media: An institutional theory perspective on algorithmic media production and consumption

Journal Article Communication Theory · January 1, 2014 Communication scholars have recently begun to recognize and investigate the importance of algorithms to a wide range of processes related to the production and consumption of media content. There have been few efforts thus far, though, to connect these dev ... Full text Cite

Translating diversity to internet governance

Journal Article First Monday · December 1, 2013 This paper examines the emergence of diversity as a guiding principle of Internet governance. This paper compares how diversity is being interpreted and applied in Internet governance discourse and related research with its interpretation and application i ... Full text Cite

Mobile Leapfrogging and Digital Divide Policy: Assessing the Limitations of Mobile Internet Access

Journal Article Fordham University Schools of Business Research Paper · April 2013 Cite

Translating Diversity to Internet Governance: The Migration of a Policy Principle from Traditional to New Media

Journal Article Fordham University Schools of Business Research Paper · February 6, 2013 Cite

Audience evolution and the future of audience research

Journal Article Jmm International Journal on Media Management · December 1, 2012 This article considers how changes in audience behaviors and in audience information systems are affecting the future of academic audience research. This article first illustrates how changes in the media environment are undermining traditional approaches ... Full text Cite

Bridging gaps, crossing boundaries

Chapter · January 1, 2011 Cite

Communications research in action: Scholar-activist collaborations for a democratic public sphere

Book · December 1, 2010 A synergy between academia and activism has long been a goal of both scholars and advocacy organizations in communications research. The essays in Communications Research in Action demonstrate, for the first time in one volume, how an effective partnership ... Cite

On making public policy with publicly available data: The case of U.S. communications policymaking

Journal Article Government Information Quarterly · October 1, 2010 A fundamental principle of public policymaking should be that public policy must be made with publicly available data. This article develops this position and applies it to an assessment of the current state of communications policymaking, a policy area in ... Full text Cite

Hyperlinking and the forces of "massification"

Chapter · December 1, 2008 The role of hyperlinking in the development of the Internet warrants investigation for a number of reasons. First, along with the Internet's inherently global reach and its virtually unlimited content capacity, hyperlinking is one of the key factors that d ... Cite

Paradoxes of media policy analysis: Implications for public interest media regulation

Conference Administrative Law Review · September 1, 2008 Cite

Bridging cultural policy and media policy

Journal Article Journal of Arts Management Law and Society · January 1, 2008 Cultural and media policy have remained largely distinct fields of research, policymaking, and policy advocacy in the United States. There are, however, significant areas of overlap between these two areas that have not been fully explored. The author exam ... Full text Cite

Media ownership regulations and local news programming on broadcast television: An empirical analysis

Journal Article Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media · January 1, 2007 This study analyzes the provision of local news programming on local television and its relation with station ownership characteristics and market conditions. The results show that station financial strength and market competition have a significant, posit ... Full text Cite

Reassessing the potential contribution of communications research to communications policy: The case of media ownership

Journal Article Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media · December 1, 2006 This article examines how the contemporary communications policy-making environment (particularly in relation to media ownership) is one in which communications research can play an increasingly influential role. This article explores how the expanded anal ... Full text Cite

Market competition, station ownership, and local public affairs programming on broadcast Television

Journal Article Journal of Communication · December 1, 2006 This study examines the relationship between competitive conditions in television markets, ownership characteristics, and commercial broadcast television station provision of local public affairs programming. The results from an analysis of a random sample ... Full text Cite

Book Reviews

Journal Article Journal of Communication · September 1, 2006 Full text Cite

Changing market information regimes: A case study of the transition to the BookScan audience measurement system in the U.S. book publishing industry

Journal Article Journal of Media Economics · April 17, 2006 This article presents a case study of the transition to a new market information regime, via an analysis of the transition to the BookScan system of measuring book sales and the potential impact of this new measurement system on how publishing industry dec ... Full text Cite

Audience measurement and media policy: Audience economics, the diversity principle, and the local people meter

Journal Article Communication Law and Policy · January 1, 2005 Nielsen Media Research's introduction of the local people meter (LPM) audience measurement service has encountered substantial resistance from industry stakeholders, politicians and sectors of the minority advocacy community. Much of this resistance has fo ... Full text Cite

Book Review

Journal Article Journal of Media Economics · January 2005 Full text Cite

Television station ownership characteristics and local news and public affairs programming: An expanded analysis of FCC data

Journal Article Info · December 1, 2004 This paper examines the relationship between television station ownership characteristics and local news and public affairs programming through an expanded analysis of data from the Federal Communication's Commission (FCC's) recent study of Big Four broadc ... Full text Cite

The Public Interest Obligations Initiative: Lost in the Digital Television Shuffle

Journal Article Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media · January 2003 Full text Cite

Market conditions and public affairs programming: Implications for digital television policy

Journal Article Harvard International Journal of Press Politics · December 1, 2001 This study investigates whether market conditions affect the provision of public affairs programming by television broadcasters. The study examined a random sample of 112 commercial broadcast stations in order to determine whether station characteristics, ... Full text Cite

The localism principle in communications policymaking and policy analysis: Ambiguity, inconsistency, and empirical neglect

Journal Article Policy Studies Journal · January 1, 2001 Localism long has been a central guiding principle in communications policymaking, yet its specific meaning and objectives have not been well articulated by policymakers. This article attempts to bring greater clarity to the localism principle, through an ... Full text Cite

The unpredictable audience: An exploratory analysis of forecasting error for new prime-time network television programs

Journal Article Journal of Advertising · January 1, 2001 This article investigates possible determinants of forecasting error for new prime-time network television programs. Each season, advertising industry forecasters attempt to predict the audience shares for new fall programs. Advertising expenditures are ma ... Full text Cite

The localism principle: Under stress

Journal Article Info · January 1, 2000 Recent developments in media technology have led some within the communications policy field to question traditional approaches to localism and its continued viability as a meaningful policy principle. In response to this potential turning point, this pape ... Full text Cite

The unique nature of communications regulation: Evidence and implications for communications policy analysis

Journal Article Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media · January 1, 1999 The numerous policy changes taking place following the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 necessitate an examination of the nature of communications regulation. Specifically, it is necessary to reexamine whether the prevailing analytic perspecti ... Full text Cite

Writing Activities of Public Relations Practitioners: The Relationship between Experience and Writing Tasks

Journal Article Public Relations Review · January 1, 1999 This study provided descriptive information on the types of writing tasks conducted by public relations practitioners. The public relations literature differentiates the roles of public relations technicians and managers according to tasks. Generally, tech ... Full text Cite

The marketplace of ideas metaphor in communications regulation

Journal Article Journal of Communication · January 1, 1999 The "marketplace of ideas" metaphor has been interpreted from democratic and economic theory perspectives. These different interpretive approaches emphasize different policy objectives and have been associated with divergent regulatory philosophies. To rea ... Full text Cite

Deconstructing the diversity principle

Journal Article Journal of Communication · January 1, 1999 This article presents an examination of the diversity principle in communications policy. Given the Federal Communication Commission's recent emphasis on diversity as a policy objective, diversity assessments must return to the forefront of communications ... Full text Cite

Government assessment of FCC performance: Recurring patterns and implications for recent reform efforts

Journal Article Telecommunications Policy · January 1, 1998 This article examines the process of government analysis of FCC performance. Both the executive and legislative branches have a long history of commissioning studies of the FCC. This article presents an analysis of these studies, concluding that they prese ... Full text Cite

A principal-agent approach to the study of media organizations: Toward a theory of the media firm

Journal Article Political Communication · April 1, 1997 Media organizations are both political and economic actors They have the ability to influence public opinion voting behavior and government policy At the same time they tend to be motivated primarily by profit maximizing goals Agency theory also called the ... Full text Cite

Rethinking program diversity assessment: An audience-centered approach

Journal Article Journal of Media Economics · January 1, 1997 The marketplace metaphor that provides the foundation for the regulation of electronic media assumes not only that a diversity of content is available, but also that audiences expose themselves to this diversity. This exposure dimension of the diversity is ... Full text Cite

The media trade press as technology forecaster: A case study of the VCR's impact on broadcasting

Journal Article Journalism and Mass Communication Quaterly · January 1, 1997 This paper assesses how the broadcasting and advertising trade press performed in their role as technology forecaster, using the introduction of the VCR and its potential impact on broadcasting as a case study. An examination of the forecasts made within t ... Full text Cite