Media v. Government

Catalog description

This course examines the defining conflicts between media and government, the consequences of which have helped to shape our principles and practices of mass communication. We explore the historical cultural clashes and landmark legal cases that have tested the meanings and boundaries of a free press, the public interest, the right to privacy, freedom of information, and national security. Students will also learn about central debates in the practice of mass media through examining famous battles over defamation, copyright infringement, and indecent material. Some of these cases have positioned media producers against government agencies, arriving at dramatic decisions in the Supreme Court. Others have placed media figures against political figures in cultural collisions that played out on national television, or online, where the "court of public opinion" mattered most. From Edward Murrow's historical head-to-head with Joseph McCarthy in 1954, to President Trump's conflicts with news outlets and social networks in present day, students will immerse themselves in the cultural, political, and legal frameworks in which these rivalries occurred. Beyond American media, the course will examine the varying press systems around the globe, and the revolutionary role that certain media have assumed against authoritarian governments.