Juan Monroy — Introduction to Media Industries: Class 11, Regulation

Models of Expression
- authoritarian model
- state model
- social responsibility model watchdog, Fourth Estate, US journalism
- libertarian model
First Amendment
- Bill of Rights
- Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
- five freedoms
  - freedom of religion
  - freedom of speech
  - freedom of press
  - freedom of assembly
  - freedom to protest government
Prior Restraint
- censorship
- Near v. Minnesota (1931)
- Pentagon Papers: US vs. New York Times (1971)
- H-Bomb: US v. Progressive Magazine (1979)
Sedition
- Sedition Act 1798
- Espionage Acts 1917 and 1918
- Schenck vs. United States (1919)
Copyright Infringement
- Statute of Anne
- Copyright Act of 1790
- length of copyright term
- public domain
- fair use
Libel
- written defamation
- New York Times v. Sullivan (1964)
- public figures vs. private individuals
- false statement
- damages or actual injury
- negligence
- actual malice for public figures
- exemptions
  - qualified privilege
  - absolute privilege
  - opinion and fair comment
Obscenity
- Miller v. California (1971)
- Whether “the average person, applying contemporary community standards”, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interes
- Whether the work depicts/describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable state law
- Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value
Indecency
- broadcast medium
  - uses public airwaves
  - pervasive presence
  - regulated as interstate commerce
- depicts or describes sexual or excretory organs or activities in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium. In each case, the FCC must determine whether the material describes or depicts sexual or excretory organs or activities and, if so, whether the material is “patently offensive.”
- FCC v. Pacifica (1978)
  - George Carlin, WBAI (1973)
  - safe harbor
Equal Opportunity
- Section 315 of Federal Communications Act
- broadcast stations must provide equal opportunities and response time for qualified political candidate
- exemptions, codified 1958
  - newscasts
  - press conferences
  - bona fide news events
- chilling effect on political programming
- many stations avoided controversial political programming
Net Neutrality
- coined by Tim Wu
- democratic medium: non-discrimination of traffic
- FCC regulation over Internet?
  - essential utility (i.e., common carrier)
  - information service (i.e., cable TV)
- For example: Would Verizon FiOS slow down Netflix streaming because it competes with FiOS TV?