FUNCTIONS OF JOURNALISM

Media law in the US

What is journalism?
The application of a set of skills that provides current information about the world news to the public at large.

OTHER FUNCTIONS
- political accountability - enabling public understanding of the economic, political and social world - cultural life of societies - it entertains and amuses us - it shapes and reflects a range of constituencies and communities in society (it adds to the fabric of public life by providing the social glue - it bonds communities together and shapes our understanding of who we are)

OTHER FUNCTIONS
It helps maintain established positions of power within societies Provides a moral framework within which we might orient ourselves They tell us who we are, interpret the world for us, making it intelligible News helps explain life (Black, 2001)

OTHER FUNCTIONS
Express a deeper sense of humanity break down barriers between different peoples and different cultures Makes judgments and comments Literary values helps us tap into our cultural identity and its history Advertising

JOURNALISTIC VALUES
- Commitment to serve the public in an ethically informed manner - Plays an important part in the formation, enhancement and perpetuation of an informed society It has to provide citizens with accurate and reliable information that they need to function in a free society

JOURNALISTIC VALUES
Respect for truth and for the right of the public to truth is the first duty of the journalist Just as physicians and lawyers are morally required to be truthful with their patients and clients, journalists are morally obliged to deliver truth to the public (Klaidman and Beauchamp)

JOURNALISTIC VALUES
Public writing has a strong political history Other cultural and economic functions Gossip, rumour and speculation The desire for news. With its concomitant dangers, has probably been an aspect of most societies through history. (celebrity-obsessed and sensationalist news agenda of todays tabloids

JOURNALISTIC VALUES
Tabloid genre to amuse and entertain Sensational crime story and humaninterest stories (New York Sun, New York Herald) Penny dreadfuls give the masses some thrills and chills for their money that couldnt be found anywhere else) Yellow journalism

JOURNALISTIC VALUES
Ideal of objectivity
economic tensions technological developments

HISTORY OF JOURNALISM
- Roman times Acta Diurna - English Civil War (early 17th century) - Mid 19th century the industrialization of the press) First mentioned in English in the 1830s adapted from French journalisme

HISTORY OF JOURNALISM
- around the 15th century a new system of proto-capitalism after the collapse of the Hapsburg Empire Accurate information essential for economic and political power Desire to control the spread of information (The Tudor period in England, licensing)

HISTORY OF JOURNALISM
Public writing informing modern conceptions of journalism: John Milton Areopagetica a plea to repeal the licensing system In America: the first American newspaper Publick Occurrences (Benjamin Harris, Boston 1690) banned after 4 days

HISTORY OF JOURNALISM
1735 John Peter Zenger publisher of New York Weekly Journal criticised governor Cosby. Cosby accused Zenger of libelous statements (damaging his reputation) and seditious language (encouriging revolt). The jury did not convict Zenger

HISTORY OF JOURNALISM
Boston NewsLetter the first continually published American newspaper, followed by The Boston Gazette, The New English Courant (information, entertainment) News becomes a commodity In the 18th century the public sphere the realm of public, political discourse reflecting the changing dynamics of European political and economic life

JOURNALISM AND POLITICS

The fourth estate The watchdog role it enabled public scrutiny ad accountability of politicians Essential to the effective working of democracy It acts on the publics behalf, monitors power and articulates the peoples voice

JOURNALISM AND POLITICS

In the late 18th century in England Wilkes wrote a pamphlet North Briton which made possible to publish the proceedings in the House of Commons The Boston Gazette (US) shaped opinion against the British it undermined established unrepresentative authority

JOURNALISM AND POLITICS

Tom Paine (late 18th century) cemented the connection press politics Common Sense, American Crisis, Rights of Man, Age of Reason Man had inalienable rights and government should be organised as to protect and reflect these rights (chief ones the political rights)

JOURNALISM AND POLITICS

Paine: a free press should facilitate the connection between a democratic government and the people In Britain taxation removed in mid 19th century Journalism is independent from government yet performs a key function for democracy

JOURNALISM AND POLITICS

Journalism as important element in the constraint of the masses The progressive emancipatory values of journalism are undermined by the priorities of profit Commercial press expanded after the final repeal of the stamp tax in 1855 The relationship market-journalism has undermined the democratic spirit of journalism

JOURNALISM AND POLITICS

Lippman: political life is too complex for most Americans to understand, and journalism should simplify it so as to retain its democratic ethos A conveyor of political information to the public Dewey: the role of journalism is to engage the masses in debate about political affairs (a deliberative model, an arena of public debate civi/public journalism))

JOURNALISM AND POLITICS

The Internet provides greater deliberation and public awareness McNair we have shifted from a paradigm of control to one of chaos Sunstein deliberative opportunities are closed down because people tend to be drawn to materials that reflect rather than challenge their political principles and ideals

CONCLUSION
Winston new technologies not very innovative online journalism is taken directly from print hard copy Conboy and Steel ; It is ultimately the public itself that has the ultimate say in where the future of journalism lies

MEDIA LAW IN THE UNITED STATES

Mill: On Liberty: The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race, posterity as well as the existing generation If the opinion is right, thy are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for the truth: if wrong, they lose what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.

 Mill: Even opinions lose immunity, when the circumstances in which they are expressed are such as to constitute a positive instigation to some mischievous act. An opinion that corndealers are starvers of the poorought to be unmolested when simply circulated through the press, but may justly incur punishment when delivered orally to an excited mob assembled before the house of a corn-dealer.

SEDITION
Verbal attacks of government and its officers, laws and institutions First Amendment to the US Constitution passed in 1791 Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press 1798 Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts

SEDITION
Thomas Jefferson (France) - John Adams (England) Jefferson: I discharged every person under punishment or prosecution under the sedition law, because I consideredthat law to be a nullity, as absolute and as palpable as if Congress has ordered us to fall down and worship a golden image

SEDITION
Schenck v United States (1919) Schenck general secretary of the Socialist Party Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote the opinion for the Supreme Court: We admit that in many places and in ordinary times the defendants in saying all that was said would have been within their constitutional rights But the character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done

SEDITION
The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic. A case-by-case basis

SEDITION
Frohwerk v. United States (1919) the Missouri State News 10 year sentence Eugene Debs v United States He said: I have been accused of obstructing the war I admit it. Gentlemen, I abhor war. I would oppose the war if I stood alone Sentenced to 10 years

SEDITION
Abrams v United States leaflets Holmes dissented: In this case sentences of twenty years imprisonment have been imposed for the publishing of two leaflets that I believe the defendants had as much right to publish as the Governmnet has to publish the Constitution of the United States now vainly invoked by the,

SEDITION
Holmes: When men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe that the ultimate good desires is better reached by free trade in ideas that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market The theory of the marketplace-of-ideas

SEDITION
The Fourteenth Amendment (passed in 1868) No State shall deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law. Gitlow v. United States a manifesto called for mass strikes at destroying the democratic state and establish a revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat

SEDITION
The Court sentenced Gitlow for language of direct incitement but Holmes dissented Every idea is an incitement. The only difference between the expression of an opinion and an incitement is the speakers enthusiasm for the result. Eloquence may set reason on fire.

SEDITION
The Alien Registration Act ?Smith Act in 1940 fear of domestic Communist and approach of World War II Dennis v United States : definition of clear and present danger Judge Hand Gravity improbability = invasion of free speech High gravity and low improbability high degree of invasion of speech

Sedition
Chief Justice Douglas dissented Free speech the glory of our system of government should not be sacrificed on anything less than plain and objective proof of danger that the evil advocated is imminent.

SEDITION
The modern doctrine of incitement Brandeburg v. Ohio (1969) Sentencing requires: intent, imminence and likelihood

PRIOR RESTRAINT
Near v Minnesota (1931) The Saturday Press was abolished The Supreme Court rules: It has been generally, if not universally considered, that it is the chief purpose of freedom of the press to prevent censorship (previous restraint/prior restraint).

PRIOR RESTRAINT
The character and conduct of public officers remain open to debated and free discussion in the press. The administration of government has become more complex, crime has grow to most serious proportions and the danger or its protection by unfaithful officials and o the impairment of the fundamental security of life and property by criminal alliancies and official neglect, emphasizes the primary need of a vigilant and courageous press, especially in great cities.

PRIOR RESTRAINT
New York Times v. United States = the Pentagon Papers The Supreme Court: any system of prior restraint of expression comes to this Court bearing a heavy presumption against its constitutional validity

LIBEL
It reflects no more than our basic concept of the essential dignity and worth of every human being. Under strict liability: Are those your words? New York Times Co. v Sullivan the revolution of U.S. Libel law Actual malice knowledge that a statement is false or reckless disregard of whether it was true or false.

LIBEL
The Supreme Court: erroneous statement is inevitable in free debate and it must be protected if the freedoms of expression are to have the breathing space that they need to survive

LIBEL
Another ruling of the Supreme Court: An individual ho decides to seek governmental office must accept certain necessary consequences. The media are entitled to act on the assumption that public officials and public figures have voluntarily exposed themselves to increased risk of injury form defamatory falsehoods.

CONCLUSION
Prior restraint may be allowed: information interfering with war effort Information inciting acts of violence Information defined as obscene