JOUR402 - Journalism Law and Ethics

Regulation of the media has traditionally been premised upon claims of the public interest, yet the term itself remains contested and generally ill defined. In the context of technological development and convergence, as well as corporate conglomeration, traditional public service values in British broadcasting are challenged by market values. With such ongoing trends continuing apace, regulators must increasingly justify their interventions. The communication industries commercialisation and privatisation pose a fundamental threat to democratic values. This book argues that regulators will only successfully protect such values if claims associated with citizenship are recognised as the rationale and objective for the regulatory endeavour. While such themes are central to the book, this second edition has been substantially revised and updated, to take account of matters such as European Directives, the UK s Communications Act 2003, the process of reviewing the BBC s Charter, and relevant aspects of the reform of general competition law."

Television and radio broadcasters air content, including advertisements and other programming, on a variety of issues, some of which directly address their interests as broadcasters. The FCC applies the Communications Act of 1934 to hold these broadcasters to a basic principle - that the public should know when and by whom it is being persuaded. Statutes and FCC regulations require licensed broadcasters to publicly disclose information about sponsored content. This book describes the disclosure requirements for broadcasters that air advertisements or programming that affect their interests and may be intended to influence Congress, and any requirements to air opposing views; and assesses what is known about the number and fair market value of these advertisements, and those of opposing views, aired from 2007 through 2012.

The Indecent Screen explores clashes over indecency in broadcast television among U.S.-based media advocates, television professionals, the Federal Communications Commission, and TV audiences. Cynthia Chris focuses on the decency debates during an approximately twenty-year period since the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which in many ways restructured the media environment. Simultaneously, ever increasing channel capacity, new forms of distribution, and time-shifting (in the form of streaming and on-demand viewing options) radically changed how, when, and what we watch. But instead of these innovations quelling concerns that TV networks were too often transmitting indecent material that was accessible to children, complaints about indecency skyrocketed soon after the turn of the century. Chris demonstrates that these clashes are significant battles over the role of family, the role of government, and the value of free speech in our lives, arguing that an uncensored media is so imperative to the public good that we can, and must, endure the occasional indecent screen.