Mass Communications Law

Lively's in-depth study of communications law clarifies the basic principles that comprise the law and provides a thorough survey of "the press" as it was originally outlined in the Constitution and how its profile has changed due to the sophisticated nature of today's media. Lively reviews the concepts that formed the groundwork for the law, examines the history of the regulation of the communications industry, evaluates the guidelines that have developed regarding the content of accessible information, and discerns trends in ownership of information sources.

This book provides the most comprehensive and contemporary coverage available of communications law, a subject characterized by rapidly expanding and changing horizons. Broader in focus than any other book on the topic, Modern Communications Law considers the media's nature and context, structural governance of the communications industry, and content issues. The author provides an exhaustive study of telephone communications, as well as print, broadcasting, and new media including cable. The book is designed particularly for pertinent law school courses and will also be a key source for legal practitioners, media industry professionals, and government regulators and policymakers.

This clearly written and well-focused volume combines concise decisions of the primary areas of communication law with the foundational case decisions in those domains. Thus, in one volume, students of communication law, constitutional law, political science, and related fields find both the key rulings that define each area of law and a detailed summary of the legal concepts, doctrines, and policies so vital to understanding the rulings within their legal context. The text forgoes the tendency to provide encyclopedic treatment of all the relevant cases and focuses instead on the two or three cases most vital to an accurate and informed understanding of the current state of each field of communication law. The chapters provide readers with the most salient concepts and the necessary depth to understand the law while permitting most: reading time to be directed to the law itself. Full-text rulings allow readers to immerse themselves in the law itself--to develop a feel for its complexity, its flexibility, and its language. Useful as a quick reference to the landmark rulings and the jurisprudence of communication law, this book also serves well as the primary text in related undergraduate courses or as a supplemental text in graduate classes in the field.

This new work on media regulation analyses and compares developments and trends across both the telecommunications and the broadcasting sectors in several different states. Using national reports, based on a common template to ensure comparable data, the book examines the ability of the law and other regulatory techniques to influence such a rapidly changing area. It exposes clearly the regulatory choices that are being made to control the so-called 'new media', including the internet, as well as examining the methods used to govern the more conventional media. The general move in the media to replace industry-specific regulations with competition law, and the extent to which self-regulation is increasingly employed by the various industries and how this is underpinned by statutory support is discussed in depth. The book looks at the regulatory systems in force in a whole range of countries, from members of the European Union, to Australia and the US, and Eastern Europe. The roles of the various European Institutions in media regulation are also examined. States' approaches to a wide variety of matters are looked at, from recent copyright developments to privacy and election laws The problems and success of these various alternative approaches are then analysed.

Highly publicized legal cases, such as those involving libel verdicts, obscenity prosecutions, the First Amendment, and other areas of media law have focused attention on only one part of the media's impact on law. This study, the first to explore the broad influence of computers and television on the future of the legal process, explains the critical role of information and argues that the influence of the new modes of communication can be seen in changes occurring in many areas of the law. These areas include the goals and purposes of law, the doctrines and rules of law, the processes law uses to settle disputes and shape behavior, the legal profession, and the values and concepts that underlie our system of law.

The man that the "Washington Post" called "one of the most brilliant legal minds of his generation" examines the common belief that cyberspace cannot be regulated--that it is, in its very essence, immune from the government's control.

Clay Calvert is an assistant professor of communications and law and co-director of the Pennsylvania Center for the First Amendment at the Pennsylvania State University.

This accessible and jargon-free book, based on Eric Barendt and his collaborators' interviews with editors of national newspapers, journalists, and their lawyers, uncovers the extent to which libel laws stifle press freedom. The authors examine the present state of libel law (including the Neill reforms and the law in Scotland) and then explore the impacts of libel law upon national and regional newspapers, broadcasters, and book and periodical publishers. This is a lively study which will appeal not only to journalists and lawyers, but to all who are interested in the freedom of the press in the UK or media studies in general.

This unique volume brings together original essays by well-known mass communication experts--master teachers--who provide practical information on teaching the communication and journalism courses in which they specialize. Its contributors include eminent specialists such as Maurine H. Beasley, who offers advice to teachers of media history; Dan Nimmo (political communication); Roy L. Moore (media law); Jay Black (media ethics); and John De Mott (media management). Chapter authors suggest course outlines, teaching strategies, and methods of testing, and provide reviews of current texts and supplementary materials such as films and other audio-visual aids.