1. Legal Controls & Freedom of Expression

2. Models of Expression Authoritarian Model Communist/State Model
Tolerates little public dissent or criticism of govt.
Communist/State Model
Places control in the hands of an enlightened govt.
Social Responsibility Model
Encourages the free flow of information to citizens
Allows for informed decisions on political/social issues

3. Models of Expression Fourth Estate Libertarian Model
Notion press operates as an unofficial branch of govt. monitoring the other 3 branches for abuses of power
Libertarian Model
Encourages govt. criticism
Supports highest degree of freedom for press & individual speech

4. Understanding Today’s Media Law
What are the 5 clauses of the first amendment?
Name the different forms of mass media that exist in our society

5. Understanding Today’s Media Law
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteed citizens of the new country five essential and related freedoms:
Religion
Speech
Press
Assembly
Petition
The First Amendment ignited a sometimes bitter debate about free speech that continues to this day.

6. Understanding Today’s Media Law
In 1798, The Alien and Sedition Acts,
Illegal to criticize the government, through Congress.
Lasted two years, helped Jefferson win the presidency in 1800
The Comstock Act, passed in 1873,
Banned all sex education, birth control, and abortion information,
Made illegal to send these materials through the mail.

7. Unprotected Forms of Expression
Seditious expression
Schenck v. United States established the “clear and present danger” criterion for expression.
1st amendment protections differ in wartime & peace
Copyright infringement
Copyright protects the rights of authors and producers to their published or unpublished work.
How long does copyright last?

8. Understanding Today’s Media Law
The copyright sign
Does not have to appear in a work for it to be protected.
Fair use
Allows copying of a work for noncommercial use as long as it does not exploit the copyright holder.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Made it a crime to break through any technology intended to secure digital copies of software, literary works, videos, and music.

9. Censorship as Prior Restraint
Government cannot block speech or publication before it occurs.
Pentagon Papers case
Supreme Court ruled
Press “must be left free to publish news, whatever the source, without censorship, injunctions, or prior restraints.”

10. Understanding Today’s Media Law
Muckrakers influenced passage of laws
Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890
Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906,
Lead to restrictions in what and how the media could advertise.
Espionage Act upheld the censorship of ideas considered injurious to the war effort.

11. Understanding Today’s Media Law
Clear and Present Danger doctrine
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote the in 1919
“The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that the United States Congress has a right to prevent.”

12. Understanding Today’s Media Law
Defamation
False communication that and injures the reputation
Slander
Defamation that appears in spoken form, such as speech.
Libel
Published or broadcast defamation.
In most cases, truth is the absolute defense against a charge of libel.
A public figure must prove actual malice
Either knew it was false or had a reckless disregard for the truth,.

13. Unprotected Forms of Expression
Libel
Defamation of character in written or broadcast form
More difficult to prove in cases involving public figures
Defenses
Truth
Qualified privilege
Rule of opinion & fair comment
Satire, comedy, & opinions expressed in reviews

14. A Brief History of Media Law
In 1957, the Supreme Court decreed that a work could be declared obscene
If, according to the perceptions of the average person applying contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material taken as a whole appealed to the prurient (lustfully depraved) interest of the consumer.
This definition tended to confuse rather than clarify.

15. Unprotected Forms of Expression
Obscenity
Under Miller v. California (1973), material must meet three criteria:
Average person would find the material appeals to a prurient interest.
Material depicts/describes sexual contact in patently offensive way.
Material, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

16. A Brief History of Media Law
In 1964 Justice Potter Stewart expressed frustration at the difficulties of defining obscenity
He famously said “I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it”.
A new category, indecency, was created for broadcast controls.
The FCC considers material indecent if it is “offensive to community standards for broadcasting.”

17. Self-Regulation in the Movie Industry
Motion Picture Producers & Distributors of America
Established the Motion Picture Production Code in the 1930s
Miracle case (Burstyn v. Wilson)
Supreme Court granted films free speech protection & rendered most activities of film review boards unconstitutional

18. The MPAA Ratings System
Established ratings as guideposts for the suitability of films for various age groups

19. The Demise of the Fairness Doctrine
Required stations to:
Air and engage in controversial-issue programs affecting their communities
Provide competing points of view when offering such programming
Broadcasters argued it created an unfair burden.
Ended in 1987
Support periodically resurfaces.

20. A Brief History of Media Law
Regulating Broadcasting
FCC regulates more than radio stations on the frequency spectrum.
The Equal Time Rule
Stations must give equal opportunity for other candidates of same office.
The Fairness Doctrine ( )
Required broadcasters to give time for discussion of big public issues.

21. A Brief History of Media Law
Telecommunications Act of 1996,
Removed restrictions on a wide range of communications industries
Allowing
Cable TV,
Long distance carriers,
Local phone companies,
Information services
Internet service providers to merge at will.

22. A Brief History of Media Law
New Technology
In 1996, Congress passed the Communications Decency Act,
Which made it a crime to transmit indecent material over the Internet if minors had access to it
But the Supreme Court found it unconstitutional
Why would this be unconstitutional

23. Communication Policy & the Internet
Internet regulation
Internet regarded as the one true venue for unlimited free speech.
Public conversation focuses on First Amendment issues.
Battle over net neutrality rules
Will determine if broadband Internet connections will be defined as an essential utility or info service
The concept that internet service providers (ISPs) should allow all types of traffic to travel across their networks without discrimination

24. A Brief History of Media Law
New Technology
Other laws had to be written for crimes that did not exist before the Internet.
A 1996 law made computer espionage illegal.
In the 1990s, federal law made the development and purposeful transmission of computer viruses illegal.

25. The First Amendment & Democracy
As citizens, we must:
Engage in public debate about media ownership
Pay attention to those excluded from opportunities not only to buy products but to shape the cultural landscape
Challenge journalists and leaders
Become watchdogs and critical consumers