My name is Pawel (Paul) Popiel and I am an Assistant Professor at Washington State University’s Murrow College of Communication.
My research examines the political economy and regulation of the communication and media industries, particularly digital platforms. Using mixed methods, I investigate policy contexts where regulatory frameworks and jurisdictions become blurry or contested in response to challenges introduced by new technologies, such as competition in digital markets, privacy amid datafication, and speech in online spaces. Essentially, my work focuses on two interrelated themes: the political implications of policies governing information, communications, and digital technologies, and the political processes underlying the formulation and enforcement of those policies.
My book project, based on my dissertation research, examines how the boundaries of U.S. competition policy are discursively contested and negotiated by policy actors, ranging from policy experts to regulators to public interest groups to the regulated industries themselves, in response to dramatic changes in digital communications sectors. I trace how clashing political interests, including stakeholders’ efforts to strategically shape the boundaries of what constitutes digital markets, animated the emergence of competition policy as a prominent governance mechanism over digital platforms, resulting in the current antitrust scrutiny of tech giants like Facebook and Google. I also offer a critique of this emerging governance framework and I suggest ways to rethink existing policy approaches to more holistically address problems that arise within digital markets. My research has been published in journals like Information, Communication & Society, Policy & Internet, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Journal of Digital Media & Policy, and others, and has been presented at major conferences.
I obtained my Ph.D. at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. I also hold a B.A. in Political Science from McGill University and an M.A. in Media Studies from the University of Texas at Austin.