Amit Schejter

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Amit Schejter's research, teaching and service integrates a comprehensive approach to communications policy and its application to the everyday challenges created by the unequal distribution of resources and the silencing of the public's voice.

His work focuses on identifying regulatory responses to technological change; highlighting social inequalities and communication distortions created by them; and prescribing theoretically informed approaches to policy-making that enhance fairness and equality. His studies that have analyzed challenges raised by the introduction and regulation of television, cable, the Internet, mobile phones, and digital technologies in Israel, the United States, Korea, the European Union and across wide international comparative settings, have been widely published in both communication and law journals, won top-paper awards in leading communications conferences, and were cited in Congressional and Knesset hearings.

His books include "The Wonder Phone in the Land of Miracles: Mobile Telephony in Israel" (co-authored with Akiba Cohen and Dafna Lemish, Hampton Press, 2008), "...And Communications for All: A Policy Agenda for A New Administration" (Lexington Books, 2009) and "Muting Israeli Democracy: How Media and Cultural Policies Undermine Freedom of Expression" (University of Illinois Press, forthcoming in 2009).

Dr. Schejter teaches courses on telecommunications regulation, media law, the media and information industries, comparative and world media systems and media activism. He dedicates much of his time to promote and sustain a dialog between academia and the media advocacy community. In that capacity he led the "Future of American Communications Working Group," which presented President Barack Obama's transition team with a policy agenda for the new administration on the eve of his inauguration, an agenda that was described by an FCC commissioner as "required reading for policymakers."

In addition, he organized a national symposium for scholars and activists on “Academic Research for Media Reform,” and contributed to the work of "I'lam, the Media Center for Arab Palestinians in Israel." His work has been supported, among others, by the Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication, the Second Authority for Radio and Television in Israel, the Social Science Research Council and the Media Democracy Fund.

In 2007, he earned the Deans' Excellence Award for Integrated Scholarship.

Prior to his arrival at Penn State, Schejter spent a decade holding senior executive positions in Israel's telecommunications arena, including chief of staff and senior adviser to two secretaries of education and culture, general counsel for Israeli public broadcasting and vice president of Israel's largest mobile operator. In addition, he served on and chaired a variety of public committees, counseled media and telecommunication entities in Israel and the Palestinian Authority and held the post of assistant professor at Tel Aviv University.