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Solution manual For Mass Media Law, 22nd Edition Clay Calvert, Dan V. Kozlowski and Derigan Silver Chapter 1-16
Chapter 1 The American Legal System This chapter introduces students to the law and the legal system in the United States. The material in this chapter may be redundant for students who have completed a course in political science or the judicial system, for pre-law majors and for students who are studying criminology. Such students, however, are rare. While the material is basic and somewhat simplified, it is essential for students of media law. The content of the chapter doesn‘t lend itself to the kind of problem questions that are included in the manual for the other chapters of the book.
Highlights of Chapter 1 To help you and your students, Chapter 1 has gray-shaded text boxes with handy lists of items, such as the first text box titled ―Five Sources of Law‖ and the second text box titled ―Four Options for Handling Precedent.‖ The items in these lists may help you to organize both your teaching and testing strategies for your class. You‘ll also note that some words appear in bold format, such as stare decisis. This format indicates that these terms have definitions in the text as well as in the glossary at the end of the book. The glossary has helpful definitions of many terms. In addition to the glossary, a section at the end of the book includes a subject matter index for easy reference. Some of the new material in Chapter 1 for the 22nd edition of the book is as follows: 1. New examples of equity law, including the Justice Department‘s efforts to block former national security adviser John Bolton from publishing a memoir about his time in the Trump White House. 2. A new case illustrating the void for vagueness doctrine. 3. Discussion of how the U.S. Supreme Court shifted oral arguments to telephone conference calls during the COVID-19 pandemic.
What Should I Cover After Chapter 1? © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.
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Although Chapter 1 is a ―must-read‖ chapter that provides essential, foundational reading material for any undergraduate who is taking a course in mass media law, there clearly is some material in the rest of the textbook that you may or may not want to cover in class. In other words, you do not need to cover everything in the rest of the textbook, and you don‘t necessarily need to go in the chronological order of the chapters in the textbook. Other than Chapters 1 and 2, you really can choose what to cover, both in terms of the chapters selected and, sometimes, the material within those chapters. What chapters you choose to cover may depend on the following factors: The length of your course (Is it a 10-week course, or is it a 16-week course?) The theme of your course (Is it a narrowly focused course on the ―Law of the News Media‖ or the ―Law of the Press‖ targeting journalism students, or is it a more general course on the ―Law of Mass Communication‖ targeting majors across the communications curriculum such as journalism, advertising or public relations, media studies, telecommunications, etc.?) The target audience of students in your course (This is related to the previous bullet point. Do you only have journalism students, or are there students from all communications majors or from different majors such as business, political science, English, etc.?)
What Chapters Might I Skip If I Only Have Journalism Students and/or If I Am Teaching a 10-Week Course? If you teach a 10-week course or if your class is only comprised of journalism students, you might choose to skip any combination of the chapters on obscenity (Chapter 13), copyright and trademark (Chapter 14), advertising (Chapter 15), and telecommunications (Chapter 16). Clearly, these chapters are not essential for someone who wants to be a journalist, although the chapter on obscenity is popular with most undergraduates and it might be used to break up some of the rest of the material devoted to journalism. In addition, Chapter 3 is a cafeteria-style chapter. It contains many different subjects and topics that can easily stand on their own that you can select for your class discussions. For instance, the heading in Chapter 3 titled ―Hate Speech, Fighting Words and True Threats‖ is not necessarily an essential topic for journalism students, but it does have broad appeal.
What Chapters Must a Journalism Major Have? It goes without saying that what you teach is up to you. However, our preferences for teaching
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the course are as follows: In addition to the foundational chapters (Chapters 1 and 2) that are essential for anyone taking a course related to media law, the chapters on libel (Chapters 4, 5 and 6) and privacy (Chapters 7 and 8) are ―must-read‖ chapters for all journalism majors. These chapters discuss most of the lawsuits against the press, and they provide a solid understanding of the libel and privacy torts that helps students become good journalists. The chapters that a journalism major ―should‖ have (although you might drop one of the following if time does not permit) are as follows: gathering information (Chapter 9), protection of news sources/contempt power (Chapter 10), and free press–fair trial (Chapters 11 and 12).
Chapters 2 and 3 The First Amendment What’s the Big Picture for Chapter 2? As with Chapter 1, Chapter 2 is an essential, foundational chapter. It introduces students to the notion of freedom of expression, the First Amendment protections of free speech and press, and numerous theories for interpreting and applying the First Amendment. It also covers several substantive areas where students can see the First Amendment in action, such as the section titled ―Prior Restraint‖ and (more interesting for students) the section titled ―Media Liability for RealLife Violence.‖ Some of the new material in Chapter 2 for the 22nd edition of the text is as follows: 1. New examples of self-censorship or community censorship, including the ramifications country music star Morgan Wallen faced after he used a racial slur. © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.
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2. New discussion of the Assembly Clause‘s role in protecting the right to peacefully protest. 3. An updated gray-shaded textbox titled ―Blasphemy, Dissent and Counterspeech: How American Values Don‘t Translate Worldwide,‖ discussing ways in which American values regarding free speech and free press don‘t always translate around the world.
What in Chapter 2 Is of Current Interest to Students? While most of the material in Chapter 2 is historical in nature and thus not always appealing to some students, this historical material is nonetheless important for students to understand in order to provide context and perspective. There is, however, a great deal of modern content in Chapter 2. The heading in Chapter 2 titled ―Community Censorship, Then and Now‖ features many timely examples of nongovernmental censorship, often committed by major corporations and appealing to students. Community censorship, or self-censorship, is censorship by private people or business entities. This is different from censorship or punishment imposed by the government, which is protected under the First Amendment. Community censorship is not protected under the First Amendment; that is, there is no First Amendment right to have Walmart sell your video game. The material under this heading, in other words, is nonhistorical. You might ask students in class for examples of ―community censorship‖ that they have either heard or seen in the media or experienced firsthand. This heading teaches students about the concept of a heckler‘s veto and the principle of viewpoint neutrality, both of which are core concepts for understanding the freedom of expression in the United States. Chapter 2 also features a gray-shaded textbox titled ―What is ‗Speech‘ Anyway?‖ This textbox discusses the symbolic speech doctrine in which courts treat conduct, such as burning a flag in political protest at a rally, as speech if two elements—one focusing on the actor, the other on the audience—are satisfied: 1. Actor: The person engaging in the conduct must intend to convey a particular or specific message with his or her conduct. 2. Audience: There must be a great likelihood, under the surrounding circumstances in which the conduct takes place, that some people who witness it will reasonably understand the particular message that was intended by the actor. Another gray-shaded textbox in Chapter 2 is titled ―‗To Catch a Predator‘: Media Liability for Suicide and Emotional Distress?‖ This textbox relates, in part, to a lawsuit filed against NBC for its controversial television series titled ―To Catch a Predator.‖ There is also material on the same NBC program relating to a 2011 case called Tiwari v. NBC Universal, Inc. Many students have heard about the ―To Catch a Predator‖ television series. To supplement the textbook, you might find articles that describe the show or, more specifically, one or both of the cases discussed in
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this textbox. Supplementing the material in the textbook during class time with articles related to the textbox is a good pedagogical method to get everyone in class on the same page.
What Might I Skip in Chapter 2? The heading titled ―Media Liability for Real-Life Violence‖ is popular with students, but it can be skipped if you are teaching a class that is narrowly focusing on press law, targeting only journalism students or looking for ways to save time.
What about the Seven First Amendment Theories in Chapter 2? You may choose to emphasize some First Amendment theories over the other theories, or you may choose to cover them all briefly. Alternatively, these theories make for great questions in exams (such as: What is the primary goal of protecting speech under the marketplace of ideas theory? What are the weaknesses of the marketplace of ideas theory? What is the primary goal of protecting speech under Meiklejohnian theory?). They also allow for contrast questions as well as excellent multiple-choice questions.
What about the Section on Prior Restraints in Chapter 2? Any student who is studying the First Amendment needs to know about prior restraints on speech imposed by the government. A helpful teaching dichotomy for this section is to ensure that students understand the difference between prior restraints on speech (that is, reviewing, regulating or stopping speech before it is spoken) and subsequent punishments on speech (that is, allowing one to tell one‘s speech and then punishing him or her for the speech after it is spoken). This edition of the textbook features more information on prior restraints (including information on the Internet), but it leaves intact the discussion of the seminal prior restraint case in the United States, Near v. Minnesota. You might ask your students the following question: In the age of the Internet, do you think that a prior restraint order by a court can ever be truly effective in stifling publication of information?
What’s the Big Picture for Chapter 3? Chapter 3 focuses on contemporary problems affecting the First Amendment guarantee of free speech. It contains many different subjects and topics from which you can pick and choose. You certainly do not need to cover all of them.
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