{"title":"Journalism as a Public Good: How the Nonprofit News Model Can Save Us from Ourselves","authors":"Rosalie C. Westenskow, Edward L. Carter","doi":"10.1080/10811680.2021.1937005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10811680.2021.1937005","url":null,"abstract":"At a time when many U.S. newspapers find themselves at the edge of a financial precipice, The Salt Lake Tribune’s recent transformation into a 501(c)(3) public charity presents a potentially promising route to economic safety for other daily newspapers. Although the nonprofit, tax-exempt model has been an increasingly popular one for new media outlets, the IRS’s bestowal of such status on a major daily newspaper marks an historic event — one that other newspapers, and their legal counsel, can learn from. This article outlines several issues such practitioners and owners should be aware of as they consider taking the leap to nonprofit status. The nonprofit route can have not only financial advantages for news publications, but it may also provide a better environment for cultivating the type of high-quality journalism that is essential to preserving our democracy. The legal requirements for 501(c)(3) organizations, as well as the ownership structure, have the potential to drive hard-hitting reporting on the most important issues, particularly for local publications, many of which are currently hemorrhaging such coverage. This article argues that journalism is a public good, and as such, a natural fit for the non-profit model.","PeriodicalId":42622,"journal":{"name":"Communication Law and Policy","volume":"26 1","pages":"336 - 375"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59637144","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Administrative Law and the Federal Communications Commission","authors":"Amy Sindik","doi":"10.1080/10811680.2021.1937004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10811680.2021.1937004","url":null,"abstract":"The decision of the Federal Communications Commission to repeal net neutrality regulations in 2018 was met with legal challenges arguing that the Commission did not have authority under administrative law to make such sweeping policy changes. In light of the net neutrality court battles, this historical analysis of FCC cases examines the way the Supreme Court of the United States has evaluated the FCC’s regulatory authority in cases that invoke economic considerations. The analysis indicates that the Court interprets both the Communications Act and Administrative Procedures Act as providing the FCC with considerable latitude to determine ways to regulate economic focused areas of communications, including the license application process, regulation of new technologies and challenges from citizens groups.","PeriodicalId":42622,"journal":{"name":"Communication Law and Policy","volume":"26 1","pages":"312 - 335"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59637135","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Freedom of Expression: Another Look at How Much the Public Will Endorse","authors":"D. Riffe, Kyla P. Garrett Wagner","doi":"10.1080/10811680.2021.1893096","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10811680.2021.1893096","url":null,"abstract":"Since World War II, U.S. citizens have reported overwhelming agreement that freedom of expression is a basic right. But, like the law on free expression, public opinion shows that citizen rights to free expression are not absolute or unidimensional, but conditional. To better understand the extent of citizen rights to free expression according to the U.S. public, this study examines data from an online national survey (N = 2,600) in which twenty-five types of expression were offered for respondent agreement that “U.S. citizens should have a right to….” According to the respondents, the free expression types to which citizens have the most rights were expressing political opinions, making a political speech, picketing as a union member, and wearing a black armband in protest. The least endorsed rights were lying in the news, lying generally, protesting outside a church funeral service for a veteran, using racist language in a speech, and burning the American flag. Demographic analyses showed agreement with rights to free expression was highest among younger respondents, non-whites and males. Further analysis confirmed that freedom of expression is not unidimensional, with four main dimensions underlying perceptions of the twenty-five types. These dimensions were identified as repugnant expression, historical political expression, un-patriotic expression, and avoiding compelled expression.","PeriodicalId":42622,"journal":{"name":"Communication Law and Policy","volume":"26 1","pages":"161 - 186"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10811680.2021.1893096","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45951540","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Journalist, Advertiser or Both: Reevaluating Legal Distinctions Between Journalistic and Commercial Speech in the Networked Era","authors":"Jared Schroeder, Monica Chadha","doi":"10.1080/10811680.2021.1893106","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10811680.2021.1893106","url":null,"abstract":"As traditional news organizations have struggled to adapt their content and financial models to networked information environments, and community journalism startups have begun to test a variety of new business and organization models, the line between journalistic and commercial expression has become opaque. This article examines the challenges emerging, twenty-first-century media organizations pose to how the courts have historically understood press and commercial-related speech protections. The article analyzes how the Supreme Court of the United States has rationalized its standards for press and commercial safeguards and considers how the Court has decided in recent cases involving citizen publishers who claimed protections historically reserved for traditional journalists. Ultimately, the article draws the building blocks from these ideas to propose how courts can separate the two types of communication in the twenty-first century. In doing so, the article also proposes ways in which such fledgling organizations can ensure they remain journalistic in nature.","PeriodicalId":42622,"journal":{"name":"Communication Law and Policy","volume":"26 1","pages":"222 - 264"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10811680.2021.1893106","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46882397","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The End of the Affair: Can the Relationship Between Journalists and Sources Survive Mass Surveillance and Aggressive Leak Prosecutions?","authors":"Anthony L. Fargo","doi":"10.1080/10811680.2021.1893100","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10811680.2021.1893100","url":null,"abstract":"One mission of the institutional media, recognized by journalists and judges alike, is to uncover the government’s secrets. This mission often involves obtaining information from sources who would face perils if identified. Journalists have historically risked legal penalties to protect sources’ identities, but now surveillance technology allows investigators to unmask leakers through their communication records. Meanwhile, the last two presidential administrations expanded efforts to prosecute leakers of classified information. This article examines the increasingly risky atmosphere for journalists and sources and whether the reporter-source relationship can survive the risks. After examining recent leak prosecutions and the troubling legal and ethical issues they raise, the article concludes that legal solutions are unlikely. However, journalists can combat chilling effects on sources by making source protection a higher ethical priority and by proactively guiding sources to ways they can avoid detection.","PeriodicalId":42622,"journal":{"name":"Communication Law and Policy","volume":"26 1","pages":"187 - 221"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10811680.2021.1893100","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47639039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pandering, Priority or Political Weapon: Presidencies, Political Parties & the Freedom of Information Act","authors":"A. Jay Wagner","doi":"10.1080/10811680.2021.1856603","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10811680.2021.1856603","url":null,"abstract":"Politics have a profound influence on the design and administration of nearly all government laws and policies. And the executive branch, a highly political institution, is given significant latitude in shaping the primary mechanism for accessing government information, the Freedom of Information Act. This article explores the political nature of the FOIA by examining legislative history, party messaging, presidential actions and a quantitative analysis of FOIA use and implementation from 1975 until the present. The outcomes are both predictable — Presidents Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump having poor records — and surprising — President George W. Bush producing a relatively transparent record. The study’s findings suggest the failures of FOIA are likely less a consequence of presidencies and political parties than an indiscriminate symptom of contemporary U.S. governance.","PeriodicalId":42622,"journal":{"name":"Communication Law and Policy","volume":"26 1","pages":"53 - 102"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10811680.2021.1856603","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42560222","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Libel and the Lab: Scientists and Defamation","authors":"Karen M. Markin","doi":"10.1080/10811680.2021.1856601","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10811680.2021.1856601","url":null,"abstract":"Scientists are increasingly involved in defamation claims. Sometimes they are defendants in disputes over the accuracy of articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. In other instances, scientists are plaintiffs, filing suits against those who have attacked them in the popular media, harming their reputations. Both situations represent efforts to quell scientists’ speech, generally because their research threatens established commercial interests, and they pose a threat to scientific inquiry. This article examines these two trends. It recommends that, for journal articles, courts recognize a scientific debate privilege, which is emerging in some jurisdictions. It presents evidence that reputational attacks are intimidating scientists, causing them to pursue fewer controversial lines of research. It notes that, in their efforts to maintain vigorous debate on matters of public concern, courts are allowing brutal criticism of scientists that is having the opposite effect by driving researchers’ voices out of the public sphere.","PeriodicalId":42622,"journal":{"name":"Communication Law and Policy","volume":"26 1","pages":"1 - 31"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10811680.2021.1856601","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43944173","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Matter of Public Concern: The Case for Academic Freedom Rights of Public University Faculty","authors":"Mi-Kyu Park","doi":"10.1080/10811680.2021.1856602","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10811680.2021.1856602","url":null,"abstract":"Although the Supreme Court of the United States has described academic freedom as a “special concern,” the Court has never recognized a First Amendment right of academic freedom reserved for the professoriate. Legal disputes involving scholarship and classroom speech have overwhelmingly favored institutions over individual academics. However, the lack of uniformity and inconsistent application of the current public speech framework to academia speaks to the uneasiness of applying general public employee speech principles to academic speech. This article addresses how Supreme Court jurisprudence has shaped the arc of academic freedom toward an institutional right, and how the current public employee speech framework has displaced academic speech protection tied to scholarship and teaching. Finally, the article offers both descriptive and normative arguments, including a functional theory of academic freedom and the Madisonian-Meiklejohnian conception of the First Amendment, to make the case for constitutional consideration of speech pursuant to scholarship and teaching.","PeriodicalId":42622,"journal":{"name":"Communication Law and Policy","volume":"26 1","pages":"32 - 52"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2020-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10811680.2021.1856602","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44370170","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editor’s Note","authors":"W. Hopkins","doi":"10.1080/10811680.2020.1805940","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10811680.2020.1805940","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42622,"journal":{"name":"Communication Law and Policy","volume":"25 1","pages":"423 - 428"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2020-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10811680.2020.1805940","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43953352","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Monaghan, Henry P. First Amendment Due Process, 83 Harv. L. Rev. 518 (1970)","authors":"Amanda Reid","doi":"10.1080/10811680.2020.1805955","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10811680.2020.1805955","url":null,"abstract":"Justice Felix Frankfurter once observed, “The history of American freedom is, in no small measure, the history of procedure.” Professor Henry Monaghan’s 1970 article highlighted for me the deft adjustment of procedural rules by the Supreme Court of the United States to protect substantive speech interests. As other scholars confirm, “procedure is power.” Early on in my legal studies, I had a rudimentary understanding of procedure’s power to govern how our rights are enforced and protected. But it wasn’t until I read Professor Monaghan’s article that I came to more fully appreciate the Court’s calibration of procedural levers to safeguard substantive liberties.","PeriodicalId":42622,"journal":{"name":"Communication Law and Policy","volume":"25 1","pages":"464 - 470"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2020-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10811680.2020.1805955","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45669727","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}