Understanding SOPA, PIPA & the Wikipedia Blackout

Join Columbia Journalism School (@ColumbiaJourn) in the latest of its timely, useful webcasts about technology and media. We'll discuss the implications of the U.S. Congressional bills known as SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act), which have attracted tremendous attention in the last few days. 

On Wed., Jan 18, Wikipedia's English section is going to be blacked out as part of an unprecedented protest against the bills. This will serve as the focus of our discussion, but we'll address various sides of this, including what issues journalists should be thinking about as they cover SOPA & PIPA.

Everyone from President Obama to Ruper Murdoch seems to have weighed in, but what it all means isn't clear. Clarity is what we'll aim to bring to the issue.

Hosting the show are Prof. Sree Sreenivasan (@sree), Columbia J-school digital professor and Dean of Student Affairs and Alexander Hotz (@hotzington), a reporter on The New York World, the J-school's new government accountability site named for Joseph Pulitzer's legendary newspaper. Confirmed guests taking calls include Prof. Andrew Lih (@fuzheado) of USC Annenberg, author of "Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia"; Steve Myers (@myersnews), managing editor of Poynter.org; Julian Sanchez (@normative), fellow at Cato Institute and Economist writer.

See Andrew's detailed Storify of these topics - http://bit.ly/sopastorify

You can participate by calling in live or Skyping in or commenting in our chatroom or emailing sree@sree.net or tweeting @ColumbiaJourn or @sree.

SAMPLE TWEET: 8p ET @ColumbiaJourn call-in show on #wikipediablackout + #sopa, hosted by @sree & @hotzington: http://bit.ly/cujsopa #cjsopa