Public Understanding of the Courts in the Age of New Media

February 18, 2011

Agenda

8:30 a.m. Registration

9:00am Panel I: New Media - Is it Changing the Coverage and Conduct of Trial Court Proceedings?

Description: The rise of social networking sites, the availability of new media devices, and the ability to access the Internet and communicate to a large audience using blogs and social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr affect the way trial court proceedings are covered and conducted. This panel will focus on some of the questions being faced by courts and the press, including: Who is a member of the press? What limits, if any, ought to be imposed on live blogging/coverage of trials? Does real-time reporting affect the conduct of trials? How do you know if jurors are Googling, blogging, or using Twitter or Facebook to post or find information about an ongoing trial? How about judges?

Panelists:	Mr. John Davidow, wbur.org Executive Editor
	Hon. Virginia Kendall, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
	Mr. Howard Mintz, Legal Affairs Reporter, San Jose Mercury News
	Ms. Kelli Sager, Partner, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
Moderator:	Mr. Russell Wheeler, President, The Governance Institute and Visiting Fellow, Brookings Institution

 

10:30 a.m. Break

10:45 a.m. Panel II: Anonymous No Longer? The Federal Courts of Appeals and the New Media

Description: Because the Supreme Court hears so few cases, the federal courts of appeals are the courts of last resort in most federal cases and regularly decide hot button issues and issues of first impression. But media coverage of those courts has been so sparse that the courts of appeals have been called the 'anonymous courts.' That anonymity had many sources, including the localized structure of the traditional media, the distance between the courts of appeals and the towns and cities in which many cases are tried, and the preference of some judges for anonymity. All of those barriers have recently begun to give way - the courts have become receptive to televising oral arguments, the Internet has surmounted geographical obstacles, and the new media includes news outlets with an
interest in legal developments across the country. This session will address the impact of federal courts of appeals and how the new media may be changing their anonymity and their public face.

Panelists:	Hon. Rosemary Barkett, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
	Hon. Robert Katzmann, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
	Mr. Tony Mauro, Supreme Court Correspondent, National Law Journal
	Hon. Margaret McKeown, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Moderator:	Prof. Dave Marcus, University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law

       

12:00 p.m. Lunch: Remarks by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (retired)

 

12:45 p.m. Presentation by Judge Vaughn Walker on Cameras in the Courtroom

 

1:15 p.m. Panel III: High Profile Cases in the Digital Age

Description: This panel will focus on the challenges of handling and covering high-profile cases from the perspective of judges, court staff, lawyers, and journalists. Issues will include courtroom coverage, press access, and the pressures surrounding proceedings with an enhanced public profile

Panelists:	Hon. John Jones, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania
	Ms. Elizabeth Paret, Circuit Executive, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
	Hon. Vaughn Walker, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
	Mr. Pete Williams, NBC News Justice Correspondent
Moderator:	Prof. Tom Hodson, E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, Ohio University

 

2:45 p.m. Break

 

3:00 p.m. Panel IV: Fair Trial and Free Press - Dead or Alive?

Description: A conversation among journalists, judges, lawyers, and members of the public about covering court proceedings and the balance between fair press access and fair proceedings

Panelists:	Mr. Ben Holden, Director, Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Courts and Media
	Hon. Alex Kozinski, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
	Mr. Manny Medrano, Partner, Medrano & Carlton, Los Angeles
	Hon. Barbara Rothstein, Director, Federal Judicial Center
Moderator:	Prof. Tim McGuire, Frank Russell Chair of Journalism, ASU Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication