MediaSpace Wiki

Regulation Of Media Fall2004 Session01

• Welcome to "Regulation of Television and Radio"
• I'm Dr. Foulger
• My Brooklyn College home page is at http://davis.foulger.net/brooklyn
• The Syllabus for this class can be found at http://davis.foulger.net/brooklyn/fall2004/mediaregulation/syllabus.htm
• The Schedule for this class can be found at RegulationOfMediaFall2004. (It will move soon and I'll change this line)

• This is a class about the regulation of media
  • It is not a class in media law.
    • My purpose is not to turn you into lawyers
    • They teach such classes in law schools
  • It is a course about turning you into effective media managers
    • By making you familiar with the laws and other forms of regulation that effect media decision making
    • By helping you to stay out of trouble
    • And helping you recognize when you, as a media professional, may need to talk to a lawyer
• Law is a human invention
  • It has changed over time
  • It will change again
• The earliest recorded law is the law of kings
  • Consider, for instance, the Code of Hammurabi (c. 1780 BCE)
    • http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/hamcode.html#text
  • A list of offenses, each with a generally severe punishments
    • loss of life
    • loss of property
    • loss of limbs
    • slavery
• The first law that sets up our system dates back to 1215
  • The Magna Carta is the first document that set limits on a King's power
    • http://www.bl.uk/collections/treasures/magnatranslation.html
  • It also creates, initially on a limited basis, the system of courts and precedents
  • That system of law became our system after the American Revolution
  • Key ideas that appear in the document include:
    • the establishment of a court system that "does not follow the royal court around"
    • the "lawful judgment" of "equals"
    • limitations on the finding of guilt based on self-incrimination
    • Limitations on taxes. especially inheritance taxes
• The U.S. Constitution accepts much of this system, but grants even more rights to individuals and states

• It is useful to imagine regulation as occurring at seven levels
  1. Law
     • In our system, proposed and passed in a legislature
  2. Formal Rules
     • Most often delegated to official agencies (like the FCC) within the law.
  3. Formal Precedent
     • The decisions, especially judicial decisions, that interpret laws and rules
  4. Shared Ethic/Morality
     • Things we believe as a culture
  5. Informal Rule
     • Rules that are observed but have no formal legal basis
       • MPAA movie age guidelines
       • Professional Standards of Journalism
  6. Informal Precedent (practice)
     • The decisions we make about how we do things. A media manager who punishes a reporter for having nice things to say about one candidate and rewards another reporter for saying nice things about another candidate is setting an informal precedent.
  7. Personal Ethic
     • The things that we, as individuals, do because we think they are right.
     • Most law starts as personal ethics
• An example of these levels in action in a non-media context: http://davis.foulger.info/research/Speeding.htm

• The key concept in all of this is "balance"
  • Balancing the rights of nobles and others against the rights of the king
  • Balancing harms against benefits
  • The law is a collection of balances
  • Even the first amendment balances for very different rights that sometimes conflict with one another.
  • We will find that balancing rights and harms is a general theme throughout this course

• Go over the books for the class
  • Four books
• There are readings in all for next week
  • Pember and Calvert, C.1
  • Zelezny, C.1
  • McChesney, C.1
  • Lessig, pp.130-139

• The regulation of media is not just a matter of law
  • It is also, following Lessig, a matter of:
    • Markets
    • Norms
    • Architecture

Lessig's Model of the forces that regulate media:

• McChesney and Lessig will have a lot to say about Markets as a regulating mechanism
• Norms are built into the seven layers of regulation outlined above (Informal precent to Shared Ethic)
• Architecture is another statement of McLuhan's "The Medium is the Message"
  • Consider the difference between getting a call or a letter after an interview
• We will return to this model through the semester
  • Let's look at another model
• This model looks at how media are invented and evolve:
  • Mediators (Physical Architecture) describe how a medium is built
  • Characteristics (Attributes) are enabled by mediators and determine what a medium is useful for
  • Uses are enabled by characteristics and represent the marketplace of the medium.
  • But we never use media without having effects
  • Where those effects are problematic, we adopt practices, including norms and laws, to control those problems

(from http://evolutionarymedia.com/papers/hammerAsMedium.htm)

• These points of change in a medium point to some possible inequities in Lessig's formulation
  • Architecture impacts Mediators and to some extent Characteristics. It is far removed from effects and practices.
  • Marketplace has more effect on Uses than anything else.
  • Only Laws and Norms react directly to effects, as they affect the sphere of practice.

• Review class requirements from syllabus
  • Books
  • Grading System
  • Exams
  • Class Meetings
  • Papers
  • Office Hours and Availability
  • Plagiarism
  • Special Needs

Assignments for next week

• Read:
  • Pember and Calvert, C.1
  • Zelezny, C.1
  • McChesney, C.1
  • Lessig, pp.130-139
• Index Card assignments
  1. Bring three questions to class based on the readings
  2. Imagine yourself a station manager who has just received the following letter. Your station has already been contacted about carrying the ad. What do you do?