Chapter 14 Notes PDF

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These notes cover chapter 14 of "Introduction to Mass Communication: Media Literacy and Culture."
Professor: Peter Forster...

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Intro to Mass Communication – Chapter 14 Media Freedom, Regulation, and Ethics Early Sentiment for a Free Press Democracy – government by the people Libertarianism – the philosophy of the press asserting that good and rational people can tell right from wrong if presented with full and free access to information; censorship would be unnecessary Self-Righting Principle – stated by an English author and poet, John Milton in 1644 in his book Areopagitica; his argument: the free flow or trade of ideas, even bad and uncomfortable ones, will inevitably produce the truth because a rational and good public will correct any errors

Defining and Refining the First Amendment Absolutist Position – As stated by Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black: “No law means no law… that freedom of speech means that government shall not do anything to people, either for the views they have or the views they express, or the words the speak or write”

What Is The “Press” Joseph Burstyn, Inc vs Wilson – Supreme Court declared that movies were protected expression Advertising enjoys First Amendment protection, which the Supreme Court established in 1942; despite the decision being against an advertiser in Valentine vs Christensen; Court states that just because expression was commercial did not necessarily mean that it was unprotected Time, Inc vs Hill – In 1967, the Supreme Court argued that the First Amendment grants the same protection to entertainment content Abridgement – the curtailing or cutting back of rights Some limits can placed on the time, place, and manner of expression – as long as the restrictions don’t interfere with the substance

Clear and Present Danger Can the freedom of the press be limited if the likely result is damaging? Shenck vs the United States (1919) – relates to a man distributing a pamphlet urging illegal resistance to the military draft during WWI; Justice Holmes state: “The words used are used in such circumstances and

are of such a nature as to create a clear present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has right to prevent…free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing panic.”

Balancing of Interests Ad Hoc Balancing of Interests – in individual First Amendment cases several factors should be weighed in determining how much freedom the press is granted Justice Felix Frankfurt on free speech and press – “not so absolute or irrational a conception as to imply paralysis of the means for effective protection of all the freedoms secured by the Bill of Rights…In the cases before us, the claims on behalf of freedom of speech and of the press encounter claims on behalf of liberties no less precious”

Free Press vs Fair Trial Two forms of this debate Can pretrial deny citizens judgment by twelve impartial peers, thereby denying them a fair trial Should cameras be allowed in the courtroom, supporting the public’s right to know, or do they alter the workings of the court that a fair trial is impssible? American Bar Association adopts Canon 35 A part of the ABA’s code of Judicial Ethics Forbade cameras and radio broadcasting of trials In 1963, ABA included prohibition on TV cameras In response to an intrusion by newspaper photographers during the trial of Bruno Hauptmann who was accused of kidnapping the baby of Charles Lindbergh In 1972, Canon 35 is replaced with Canon 3A(7) which allows some videotaping of trials for specific purpose but reaffirming its opposition to the broadcast of trial proceedings During the Chandler vs Florida case in 1981, the ABA determined that television cameras in the courtroom weren’t inherently damaging to fairness

Libel and Slander Libel – the false or malicious publication of material that damages a person’s reputation Slander – the oral or spoken defamation of a person’s character Both are not protected by the First Amendment Libel/Slander protected under one of three circumstances If what’s being reported is the truth, it’s protected The press cannot be deterred from covering important news for fear that the comments will open it to claims of libel or slander

The press has the right to express opinions on public issues (i.e. movie reviews) Supreme Court Decision in New York Times vs Sullivan in 1964 In 1960, a committee for MLK bought a full-page ad ask people to contribute to MLK’s defense fund The ad detailed the abuse of Dr. King and many other civil rights activists at the hands of the Montgomery police L. B. Sullivan, a commissioner of Alabama, sued the NY Times for libel Supreme Court ruled in favor of the NY Times Actual Malice – the knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard for whether or not something is true

Prior Restraint The power of the government to prevent the publication or broadcast of expression Near vs Minnesota – in 1931, Supreme Court ruled that freedom from prior restraint was a general principle instead of an absolute principle Two Instances of Prior Constraint New York Times began publishing the Pentagon Papers on June 13, 1971 The papers were given to the Times by a National Security Council (NSC) staff member, Daniel Ellsberg; he felt that the information needed to be shared with the public The papers contained discussion and analysis of the conduct of the Vietnam War Justice Dept. got a court order to stop the publication but other newspapers (The Washington Post and the Boston Globe) began publishing the same content until they too were stopped On June 30, 1971, the Supreme Court ordered the government to halt its restraint of these newspaper’s right to publish the Pentagon papers In 1979, The Progressive announced its intentions to publish instructions on how to build a hydrogen bomb The information in the article was based on material obtained freely from the public Before a case could come to court, several newspapers published similar stories o the Justice Dept. immediately abandoned its restraint

Obscenity and Pornography Obscenity isn’t protected while pornography is protected Two Landmark cases that determined the illegality of Obscenity

Roth vs United States (1957) – Supreme Court ruled that sex and obscenity were not the same thing; legally affirmed that obscenity wasn’t protected The definition for obscenity came from the 1973 Miller vs State of California decision The distinction between obscenity and pornography may be a legal one; sexually explicit is porn and is protected until a court rules it illegal Justice Potter Stewart’s famous declaration in Jacobellis vs Ohio (1964) “I may not be able to come up with a definition of pornography, but I know it when I see it” Then his dissent two years later in Ginzberg vs United States (1966) “If the First Amendment means anything, it means that a man cannot be sent to prison merely distributing publications which offend a judge’s sensibilities, mine or any others”

Other Issues of Freedom and Responsibility Indecency According to the FCC, indecent language or material is that which depicts sexual or excretory activities in a way that’s offensive to contemporary community standards According to FCC’s data, 99.9% of the complaints about these shows come from the same group, the conservative Christian Parents Television Council Despite this data, the FCC still raised its fines by 100%

Deregulation National Broadcasting Co. vs United States NBC argued that the FCC was nor more than a traffic cop, limited to controlling the “flow of traffic” Court turned this traffic cop analogy against NBC by stating that the FCC is a traffic cop but even traffic cops have the right to control the composition of the traffic as well as the flow of traffic Example: drunk drivers could be removed from the road Fairness Doctrine – required broadcasters to cover issues of public importance to be fair in that coverage Ascertainment – required broadcasters to actively determine the nature of their audience’s interest, convenience, and necessity Deregulation drive began in the 1980s with Mark Fowler, President Reagon’s FCC chair

He saw many FCC rules as unconstitutional and felt that “the market” was the audience’s best protector

Copyright Identifying and granting ownership of a given expression; designed to protect the creator’s financial interest in that expression Exception of Copyright Fair Use – instances where material can be used without permission 1) Limited noncommercial use, like photocopying a passage from a book for classroom use 2) Use of limited portion’s of a work, like excerpting a few lines or a paragraph from a book for use in a magazine 3) Use that doesn’t decrease the commercial value of the original, like videotaping a football game for your personal viewing at home 4) Use in the public interest, like a magazine’s use of pieces of drug company TV commercials to highlight its media literacy efforts Copyright Royalty Tribunal – Cable companies paid a fee to this based off the size of their production; abolished by Congress in 1993 Music licensing companies – collect fees based on the users’ gross receipts and distribute the money to the songwriters and artists; the biggest companies would be the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI)

The Internet and Expanding Copyright In January 2000, a California superior court ruled the posting of DVD decryption software to be illegal, citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act; defendants argue they did not violate copyright, but the court ruled against them as they posted tools on the Internet that may allow others to violate copyright Digital Rights Management (DRM) – protection of digitally distributed intellectual property MGM vs Grokster (2005) – the Supreme Court ruled that a technology was illegal if it “encouraged” copyright infringement Sony Corp vs Universal City Studios – also known as the Betamax decision; Supreme Court disallowed Hollywood’s challenge to videotape because VCR had “substantial non-infringing uses” even people used it to violate copyright

Creative Commons – a nonprofit corporation founded in 2001 as an easy way for people to share and build on the work of others, consistent with rules of copyright Richard Cooper, who works for an online intelligence company, argues that the way to solve the problem of piracy by doing nothing: “A lot of people engaged in video piracy…are doing it for kudos. They see every new anti-piracy measure that comes out as a challenge and something that needs to be cracked. This is their hobby.”

Social Responsibility Theory Asserts that media must remain free of government control, but in exchange media must serve the public SRT is a normative theory as it explains how media should ideally operate in a given system of social values Hutchins Commission on Freedom of the Press, named after University of Chicago Chancellor Robert Maynard Hutchins, began its work in 1942 and published its report “The Social Responsibility of the Press” in 1947 Core Assumptions of SRT       

Media should accept and fulfill certain obligations to society Media can meet these obligations by setting high standards of professionalism, truth, accuracy, and objectivity Media should be self-regulating within the framework of the law Media should avoid disseminating material that might lead to crime, violence, or civil disorder or the might offend minority groups The media as a whole should be pluralistic, reflect the diversity of the culture in which they operate, and give access to various points of view and rights of reply The public has a right to expect high standards of performance, and official intervention can be justified to ensure the public good Media professionals should be accountable to society as well as their employers and the market

Media Industry Ethics Defining Ethics Ethics – rules of behavior or moral principles that guide our actions in given situations; the word comes from the Greek ethos, which means the customs, traditions, or character that guide a particular group or culture For example, it’s not illegal to publish the name of a rape victim, but would it be ethical. It’s not illegal to stick a microphone in the face of a crying father who has his son’s dead in his hands at an accident scene, but is it ethical?

Three Levels of Ethics Metaethics – fundamental cultural values; provide only the broadest foundation for the sorts of ethical decisions people make on the daily; the basic starting points for moral reasoning

Normative Ethics – more or less generalized theories, rules, and principles of ethical or moral behavior Applied Ethics – media practitioners may apply the big rules, and the general guidelines to very specific situations

Balancing Conflicting Interests Moral Agents – this person has a specific and social obligations that invariably bring together conflicting interests Six Sets of Individual or Group Interests that Often Conflict      

The interest of the moral agent’s individual conscience; media professionals must live with their decisions The interests of the object of the act; a particular person or group is likely to be affected by the media practitioners’ actions The interests of the financial supporters; someone pays the bills that allow the station to broadcast or the newspaper/magazine to publish The interests of the institution; media professionals have company loyalty, pride in the organization for which they work The interests of the profession; media practitioners work to meet the expectations of their colleagues; they have respect for the profession that sustains them The interests of society; media professionals have a social responsibility. Because of the influence of their work has, they may have greater responsibilities than many other professionals

Confidentiallity The ability of media professionals to keep secret of the names of people who provide them with information Shield Law – legislation that protects reporters’ rights to maintain the confidentiality of their source in the court of law

Personal Conflict of Interest Embedding – reports accepting military control over their reporting in order to gain close contact with the troops

Access journalism – reporters acting deferentially toward news sources in order to ensure continued access

Codes of Ethic and Self-Regulation Self-Regulation Limitations    

Media professionals are reluctant to identify and censure colleagues who transgress The standards for conduct and codes of behavior are abstract and ambiguous As opposed as those in other professions, media practitioners are subject to stands of professional training and licensing Media Practitioners have limited independent control over their work...