This book addresses current free expression issues and analyzes the historical and legal contexts for the First Amendment. Designed for communication and political science courses in freedom of speech, this text encourages students to think critically about freedom of speech and provides a comprehensive analysis of the historical and legal contexts of the first amendment, from its early foundations through censorship on the Internet. This book explores the worldwide history of freedom of expression and examines classic and contemporary judicial opinions which have determined freedom of speech rights in the U.S. This text provides students with the opportunity to read significant excerpts of landmark decisions and to think critically about the issues and controversies raised in these cases. Students will appreciate the treatment of contemporary issues, including free speech in a post-9/11 world, free expression in cyberspace, and First Amendment rights on college campuses. KEY FEATURES & BENEFITS: - Focuses on landmark Supreme Court free expression decisions and covers follow-up cases that extend and apply these decisions (via significant excerpts from actual cases) so that students can consider the effect of decisions on freedom of expression and the competing values at stake in these cases. - Covers freedom of expression topics in both speech and mediated situations, with comprehensive coverage of such topics obscenity; fighting words and hate speech; national security; invasion of privacy; defamation.

The essays in this volume consider issues at the intersection of freedom of expression and racial, cultural, and gender diversity. The claims of those whose cultures and beliefs differ from our own are no longer the exclusive province of diplomats, as the Danish newspaper that published cartoons ridiculing Mohammed quickly learned. Negotiating the claims of freedom of expression as they come into open conflict with a wide diversity of viewpoints, both domestically and internationally, has become an increasingly complex task. The present volume seeks both to provide fresh insight into the philosophical grounds for limiting government restriction of expression and to address current tensions between freedom of expression and pluralism. The suppression of ideas by government is no doubt as old as government itself. Ideas help to keep governments in power, and opposing ideas can help them to lose it. As well, through most of the history of the world, the belief that some know b- ter than others what is true, what is right, and what is valuable has been sufficiently widespread to make it seem natural for those betters to dictate for the rest what they should believe. Just as clerics did not hesitate to dictate to their congregations, Christians did not hesitate to impose their beliefs on non-Christians in order to save their souls.

Although an inchoate liberty theory of freedom of speech has deep roots in Supreme Court decisions and political history, it has been overshadowed in judicial decisions and scholarly commentary by the marketplace of ideas theory. In this book, Baker critiques the assumptions required by the marketplace of ideas theory and develops the liberty theory, showing its philosophical soundness, persuasiveness, and ability to protect free speech. He argues that First Amendment liberty rights (as well as Fourteenth Amendment equality rights) required by political or moral theory are central to the possibility of progressive change. Problem areas are examined, including the question of whether individual political and civil rights can in principle be distinguished from property rights, freedom of the press, and the use of public spaces for expressive purposes.

In The Life and Death of Freedom of Expression, Richard Moon argues that freedom of expression is valuable because human agency and identity emerge in discourse – in the joint activity of creating meaning. Moon recognizes that the social character of individual agency and identity is crucial to understanding not only the value of expression but also its potential for harm. The book considers a range of issues, including the regulation of advertising, hate speech, pornography, blasphemy, and public protest. The book also considers the shift to social media as the principal platform for public engagement, which has added to the ways in which speech can be harmful while undermining the effectiveness of traditional legal responses to harmful speech. The Life and Death of Freedom of Expression makes the case that the principal threat to public discourse may no longer be censorship, but it is rather the spread of disinformation, which undermines public trust in traditional sources of information and makes engagement between different positions and groups increasingly difficult.

In Free Expression in the Age of the Internet, Jeremy Lipschultz investigates the Internet and its potential for profound change, analyzing the use of its technology from social, political, and economic perspectives. Lipschultz provides new insights on traditional legal concepts such as marketplace of ideas, social responsibility, and public interest, arguing that from a communication theory perspective, free expression is constrained by social norms and conformity. In Free Expression in the Age of the Internet , Jeremy Lipschultz investigates the Internet and its potential for profound change, analyzing the use of its technology from social, political, and economic perspectives. Lipschultz provides new insights on traditional legal concepts such as marketplace of ideas, social responsibility, and public interest, arguing that from a communication theory perspective, free expression is constrained by social norms and conformity. Lipschultz explores social limits on free expression by first examining history of print and electronic media law and regulation. He utilizes the gatekeeping metaphor, the spiral of silence, and diffusion theory to explore current data on the Internet. He uses Reno v. ACLU (1997) as a case study of current First Amendment thinking. This book includes recent evidence, including samples of content from Internet gossip columnist Matt Drudge, and the investigation of President Clinton as it unfolded on the World Wide Web.The analysis is related to broader issues about Internet content, including commercial and other communication. The new technologies raise new questions about legal and social definitions of concepts such as privacy. Free expression is explored in this book under the umbrella of a global, commercial economy that places importance on legal rights such as copyright, even where those rights limit free flow of ideas. The Internet places free expression on two tracks. On the one hand, corporate players are developing cyberspace as a new mass media. On the other hand, the Internet is virtual space where individuals have the power to connect and communicate with others in ways never before seen. This groundbreaking text advancing new media scholarship uses the most current case studies from the Internet to show free expression in practice today. Lipshultz presents a relevant and efficacious social communication theory of free expression which critically examines the necessary factors involved in comprehensive policy analysis and enactment.

In order for free expression to be meaningful, there must be forums available for individuals wishing to express themselves. Despite an increasing number of broadcast stations, there are still far more people wishing to speak than there are licenses. This book examines the marketplaces for free speech and proposes means by which speaking opportunities can be increased. The author even proposes the creation of broadcast access channels. Unlike access proposals of the past, these channels would respect the rights of broadcasters and cable operators by not requiring them to accomodate speakers, but, rather, by establishing electronic soapboxes, open to speakers on a first-come basis, reflecting the traditional speech making in parks and on street corners. Caristi begins his work by examining the various freedom of expression theories. He asserts that of all the values protected, free expression as self-fulfillment is the most expansive and should be the approach adopted whenever possible. Through legal history and analysis, the book examines the cases and commentary relevant to public forum and broadcast cases. Red Lion, Tornillo, and their progeny are examined for rationale in regulating media. Despite claims to the contrary, scarcity is seen as an appropriate regulatory approach for broadcasting. This book is a valuable contribution to the discussion of first amendment and communication policy, and it should be of interest to students in communication, law, and public policy.

First published in 1989, Cultural Politics in Contemporary America is a radical attempt to lay out the complex ways in which the American media and American culture is powerfully interlocked. At the end of the 20th century, the media exerted an overwhelming influence on the formation of social identity through the production and consumption of images. The Hollywood Presidency of Ronald Reagan was founded on the skills of the ‘Great Communicator’; Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the USA’ was used by Chrysler Corporation to assure that ‘the pride is back’; feminists and right-wing militants converged to oppose pornography. The media, American culture, and political power were bound together in a gamble, the stakes of which increased daily. ‘Cultural Politics’ incorporates the struggles of race, gender and class; the economy of the commercial media system; the myths of hegemony and imperialism; the crises of privacy and of the intellectual; and such diverse issues as postmodernism, the American automobile, advertising as communication, and television. While political actors have changed and media technology has advanced rapidly, the outcome of this research still holds true for the 21st century and is of importance to students of media studies, cultural studies, postmodernism, postcolonial studies and political science.

This insightful book examines how the original concept of publicity has been reduced to mean the right of media to access and print information. Visit our website for sample chapters!

Contemporary political and legal theory typically justifies the value of political and legal institutions on the grounds that such institutions bring about desirable outcomes - such as justice, security, and prosperity. In the popular imagination, however, many people seem to value public institutions for their own sake. The idea that political and legal institutions might be intrinsically valuable has received little philosophical attention. Why Law Matters presents the argument that legal institutions and legal procedures are valuable and matter as such, irrespective of their instrumental value. Harel advances the argument in several ways. Firstly, he examines the value of rights. Traditionally it is believed that rights are valuable because they promote the realisation of values such as autonomy. Instead Harel argues that the values underlying (some) rights are partially constructed by entrenching rights. Secondly he argues that the value of public institutions are not grounded (ONLY) in the contingent fact that such institutions are particularly accountable to the public. Instead, some goods are intrinsically public; their value hinges on their public provision. Thirdly he shows that constitutional directives are not mere contingent instruments to promote justice. In the absence of constitutional entrenchment of rights, citizens live "at the mercy of" their legislatures (even if legislatures protect justice adequately). Lastly, Harel defends judicial review on the grounds that it is an embodiment of the right to a hearing. The book shows that instrumental justifications fail to identify what is really valuable about public institutions and fail to account for their enduring appeal. More specifically legal theorists fail to be attentive to the sentiments of politicians, citizens and activists and to theorise public concerns in a way that is responsive to these sentiments.

On Monday, May 4th, 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard fired 61 rounds of bullets into the Kent State University students protesting about the invasion of Cambodia. This work develops the ideas of the first symposium on American democracy established to commemorate the tragedy.