MEDIA LAW: Issues & Problems SPCL 7014 Prof. John (Jack) Greiner

Highlights of the Eighth Edition of this text book include a discussion of Hulk Hogan's successful lawsuit against Gawker for public disclosure of private facts, the right to be forgotten (or "erased") in Europe, and numerous social media issues, including cyberstalking, catfishing, trolling, doxing, swatting, posting threats on Facebook and access to President Trump's tweets. Further highlights include the USA FREEDOM Act, the Supreme Court's expansion of exemption 4 of FOIA, First Amendment limits on denials of trademark registration, the Broadcast Spectrum Auction, and the continuing battle over net neutrality.

This book does not limit its focus to traditional methods of communication. Although comprehensively reckoning with those dimensions of the subject, it also examines economic, artistic, and business relationships that help define usage of the media and their relationship with society.

This text takes a narrative, nuts-and-bolts approach for mass communication students, with substantial material applicable to public relations, advertising, and broadcasting as well as journalism. The text addresses market changes by streamlining some of the traditional news-oriented material and introducing other legal topics of broad concern to communications professionals (i.e., advertising, PR, video production, announcing, magazine editing, etc.).

This treatise provides an encyclopedic analysis of law & policy relating to virtually all modern means of individual & mass communications law. Its primary focus is the history, theory & operation of the First Amendment as it protects free expression over the various media of communication from regulatory encroachment by government. Examples of key discussion areas include suppression or control of obscene, indecent & violent expression, computer communications law, regulation of cable television & broadcasting, & the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

Social media has transformed how the world communicates. Its impact has been felt in every corner of our society including the law. Social Media Law in a Nutshell is a wide-ranging look of how the social media transformation has impacted various legal fields. From marketing to employment to torts to criminal law to copyright and beyond, virtually every legal field has been changed by social media. By looking at high level concerns and example cases, Social Media Law in a Nutshell attempts to give practitioners exposure to social media issues and concerns so they can better advise clients and approach the new social media world with their legal eyes opened to new and old risks alike. The second addition covers new cases, regulations, and guidance from government regulators in the social media space.