First Amendment and the Fourth Estate

This casebook provides a thorough examination of the law of mass media, providing principal court opinions, explanatory text, and questions for discussion. Topics include the American legal system, introduction to freedom of expression, defamation, privacy, liability for emotional and physical harm, copyright and trademark, national security, obscenity and indecency, advertising regulation, press coverage of the administration of justice, confidentiality, newsgathering from non-judicial public sources, ownership of the media and related problems, access to the media, introduction to broadcasting, and legal control of broadcast programming. In this edition, Internet and new media topics, including net neutrality and other current issues, are integrated into the other materials.