On April 27 and 28, 2012, Yale Law School will host a conference on constitutional interpretation and change in conjunction with the publication of Professor Jack Balkin’s book, Living Originalism (Harvard University Press 2011). The Oscar M. Ruebhausen Fund, The Yale Journal of Law & Humanities and The Information Society Project at Yale Law School are co-sponsoring the conference, which features an impressive lineup of legal scholars and journalists. This conference is the first of its kind to focus on the role that journalists, mass media, and the Internet play in shaping Americans’ attitudes about the Constitution and its interpretation. The conference website is here, and you can register for the conference here.

In Living Originalism, Jack Balkin offers a theory of constitutional interpretation that is faithful to the Constitution’s original meaning but is also consistent with a living Constitution; Balkin argues that the best versions of originalism and living constitutionalism are compatible rather than opposed. The book also explains how legitimate constitutional change occurs in the American constitutional system through the efforts of the political branches, political parties, social movements, and the institutions of civil society.

Another distinctive feature of this conference is its focus on journalism as a conduit of American constitutional culture, and on journalists and the media as important players in the construction of public opinion about the Constitution. The conference includes panels of constitutional scholars and journalists who cover and write about constitutional issues.

Living Originalism argues that the Constitution changes over time because of continuous debates in public life about what the Constitution means. Journalists play a key role in discussing and explaining constitutional controversies before the public, including debates about constitutional interpretation. Because their work shapes and educates public opinion, journalists are an indispensable element of the long-term processes of constitutional change. The Internet and digital media, which blend traditional legal experts, journalists, commentators, and the general public, have, if anything, enhanced these features of American constitutional culture.

The all-star cast of participants includes: Bruce Ackerman (Yale), Akhil Amar (Yale), Jack Balkin (Yale), Emily Bazelon (Yale, Slate), Joan Biskupic (Reuters News), Sujit Choudhry (NYU), Justin Driver (Texas, New Republic), Garrett Epps (University of Baltimore, American Prospect), Barry Friedman (NYU), Linda Greenhouse (Yale, NY Times), Michael Greve (American Enterprise Institute), Sanford Levinson (Texas), Adam Liptak (NY Times), Dahlia Lithwick (Slate), Michael McConnell (Stanford), Robert Post (Dean, Yale Law School), Jeffrey Rosen (GW, New Republic), Reihan Salam (National Review Online, The Daily), Charlie Savage (NY Times), Kim Scheppele (Princeton), Neil Siegel (Duke), Reva Siegel (Yale), Sara Aronchick Solow (Clerk 3rd Cir.), Steven Teles (Johns Hopkins), and Matthew Yglesias (Slate)

We hope that you’ll be able to join us. The conference runs from Friday morning, April 27, through Saturday afternoon, April 28. Registration is required.

Please register here: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3037748989.

The first panel today is more concerned with the mechanics of how data makes its way into journalism. When a “source” becomes a 12 MB file in keyhole markup language, or a cache of 250,000 confidential diplomatic cables, or a simple line of code that scrapes information from the web or from twitter, what tools does a journalist apply to make sense of this source? How should this data be collected, organized, and portrayed in a way that is useful to readers and useful to the broader goals of investigative journalism (figuring out disparities, shining light on opaque processes, etc)? When the source of data is publicly available, how does a newspaper or media provider gain some competitive advantage in using the source? Who are the new intermediaries that are helping to compile and organize this data? What new forms of advertising are opened up through the use and portrayal of data? And in an ideal world, what are the best possible uses and outcomes of data journalism, and what are the obstacles standing in the way of that ideal world?

The second panel, then, is going to look at what the availability of these new tools means for journalism and democracy more broadly. When data becomes a source, what responsibility do journalists have to that source — particularly where data turns out to be sensitive or confidential or private or relevant to national security? The federal government is releasing terabytes of data through data.gov, yet the funding source for that form of front-end governmental data release has been under threat recently, while at the same time the Freedom of Information Act, our traditional legal tool for getting important datasets out of the hands of government and into the hands of journalists and citizens, costs something on the order of $500M per year and generates untold angst on the part of the government officials to whom requests are sent as well as the journalists who receive heavily redacted documents via this process, if they receive anything at all. What does the rise of data journalism have to say about how we should build systems of open, transparent government?

Finally, where is data journalism situated with respect to concerns about the increased opacity of big data collection in other contexts? The management of data flows — whether it’s surveillance and aggregation of data by the federal government, or monitoring of Internet use by private advertising networks, or aggregation and monitoring by insurance providers or employers — is now an object of intense legislative, regulatory, and judicial scrutiny. This is particularly true with respect to the question of privacy. What can practitioners of “data journalism,” broadly conceived, do to highlight some of the concerns about data-gathering in these other contexts and even help solve some of the problems associated with opaque monitoring or context-free aggregation of private data? Or is data journalism itself part of the problem, and have we lost something in the shift away from qualitative, subjective, expert newsgathering to systematic machine analysis of data?

There are clearly a number of open, contentious questions surrounding the practice of data journalism. While we don’t expect all of these questions to be answered today, I really can’t imagine a better group of journalists and moderators to help grapple with these questions than the group we’ve gathered here today.

I want to thank Heather Branch for doing heroic organizational work for this conference, including coming up with a logo that will, I think, stand the test of time.

So without further adieu, let’s get started. Ri Pierce-Grove, a fellow of the ISP, will be moderating the first panel. Thanks very much for coming out on a balmy spring break morning in New Haven.

-Nicholas Bramble, Director, Law & Media Program, Information Society Project at Yale Law School

When: March 9 from 9:30am – 3:30pm
Where: Room 122 at Yale Law School (poster)
Register (free): http://datajournalism030912.eventbrite.com

The production of news increasingly involves the processing, analysis, and presentation of data. Governments and other organizations have made more data publicly available, sometimes through extralegal means, while newsrooms have simultaneously been adding new tools and acquiring new expertise to manage this flow of information. This conference, hosted by the Information Society Project at Yale Law School, will bring together working journalists, computer scientists, and media researchers to examine new practices and challenges in the rapidly emerging field of data journalism. Panelists will explore the increasing use of data in journalism; the role that news organizations play in mediating, curating, and redacting data; and the interaction of new practices in data journalism with First Amendment and policy issues concerning freedom of information, open government, and privacy.

Free registration is available here. We’re looking forward to a very interesting set of panels.

9:30-10am: Breakfast and Registration (room 122)

10am: Opening Remarks, Nicholas Bramble, Law and Media Director, Yale ISP (text)

10:10am-12pm: Panel I: Forms and Practices of Data Journalism

• Reginald Chua, Editor, Data and Innovation, Thomson Reuters
• Amanda Cox, Graphics Editor, New York Times
• Simon Ferrari, Video Game Designer and Doctoral Researcher in Digital Media, Georgia Institute of Technology
• Katharine Jarmul, Lead Developer, Loud3r
• Dafna Linzer, Senior Investigative Reporter, ProPublica

12:15–1:15pm: Lunch (provided by Yale ISP)

1:30–3:30pm: Panel II: The Influence of Data on News Work

• C.W. Anderson, Assistant Professor of Media Culture, College of Staten Island (CUNY)
• Brian Boyer, News Applications Editor, Chicago Tribune
• Hannah Fairfield, Graphics Director, Washington Post
• Matt Stiles, Data Journalist, NPR
• Steve Waldman, Senior Advisor to the Chairman, Federal Communications Commission

4pm: Reception