Table of Contents

Preface.
Table of Cases.
1. The American Legal System.
2. The Legacy of Freedom.
3. Modern Prior Restraints.
4. Libel and Slander.
5. The Right of Privacy.
6. Copyrights and Trademarks.
7. Fair Trial-Free Press Conflicts.
8. Newsgatherer's Privilege.
9. Freedom of Information.
10. Obscenity and the Law.
11. Regulation of Electronic Media.
12. Media Ownership Issues.
13. Advertising and the Law.
14. Freedom of the Student Press.
Selected Excerpts from the Law.
Index.

About the Author

Genelle Belmas received her Ph.D. in mass communications from the University of Minnesota in 2002 with an emphasis in media law. Her dissertation examined then-emerging issues in the areas of libel, hate speech, and pornography law as applied to the Internet. She has taught media law for more than 10 years to thousands of students. Her research interests include flag display and desecration law, indecency regulation, intellectual property, scholastic journalism issues, and the connection between media ethics and law. Her research has appeared in journals such as Communications Law and Policy, Federal Communications Law Journal, and the South Carolina Law Review. She is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Bar Association, in which she participates in the communications law and intellectual property sections. Wayne Overbeck is Professor of Communications, Emeritus, at California State University, Fullerton. Professor Overbeck earned his Ph.D. at UCLA and his J.D. at Loyola Law School. He passed the California bar exam in 1975. In the years since, he has practiced law in California and Washington, D.C. but always wanted to return to college teaching and writing. With over 35 years of teaching experience and his years as a practicing attorney, he continues to be an expert in the field of media law and brings that experience to each edition of MAJOR PRINCIPLES OF MEDIA LAW. Dr. Overbeck has also written several other books and taught on other campuses.

Reviews

"As a member of the state and federal bar in Iowa, and as one who has taught media law at the college level for 18 years, I can appreciate the efforts Overbeck has put into making the material accessible to students. I am always looking for new ways to teach the course, and this text comes even closer to meeting the needs of a general, mass comm audience than ever before."

"I find that Overbeck's approach to media law, with its straightforward descriptions and timely context, keeps me coming back year after year. I really like the completeness of the annual updates, and I think that this book covers the major cases thoroughly and thoughtfully."

"It is written in a style accessible to non-specialist undergraduates. It provides just the right amount of contextualization for the major cases so that students can understand the impact of the cases on communication rights and responsibilities and develop a historical lens through which to view the evolution of media law and of the Bill of Rights."

"The text is more concise than other ones I have considered for adoption. The text is written in an extremely user-friendly manner, and my students appear to retain more of what they read from Overbeck's text. They share more in class discussions."