Research Catalog

Title

Scrambling for protection : the new media and the First Amendment / Patrick M. Garry.

Author

Garry, Patrick M.

Publication

Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press, ©1994.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

vi, 198 p.; 22 cm.

Summary

• A period of significant change in First Amendment press doctrines is about to occur, driven by a revolution in communications technology. Although the free press clause of the First Amendment - as it stands now - primarily protects the traditional print and broadcast media. Patrick Garry maintains that technological changes will force a new interpretation of the amendment to include a broader definition of the press. The "media wars" that are brewing among the newspaper, telephone, and broadcast and cable television industries are a result of technological changes which, for instance, allow telephone companies to offer information services and video programming over telephone wires - services that were once solely the domain of newspapers and television.
• In Scrambling for Protection, Patrick Garry asserts that such dramatic developments in electronic communications will radically change the way society communicates. Already, computer networks and bulletin boards are creating, in essence, electronic editorial pages on which people can register their viewpoints. Indeed, the new and increasingly interactive media promise to more significantly involve the public in the process of social communication.
• This concept of change lies at the heart of Scrambling for Protection. Garry offers models and guidelines for constitutionally redefining the press and asserts that, as both the press and the First Amendment move away from an apparently exclusive focus on journalists, the First Amendment press clause must broaden the scope of its freedoms to include the communication activities of a much larger public. Only a broad, functional definition of the press can provide an escape from the confusing regulatory maze currently facing the different types of media. Scrambling for Protection contains a wealth of information on the current and future "press." This exciting volume examines not only First Amendment legal doctrine, but the aspirations and failings of broadcast journalism and the coming age of media innovations.

Series Statement

Pitt series in policy and institutional studies

Uniform Title

Pitt series in policy and institutional studies

Subject

• Freedom of the press > United States
• Mass media > Law and legislation > United States
• Freedom of the press
• Mass media > Law and legislation
• Pressefreiheit
• Mediarecht
• Persvrijheid
• Recht van informatie
• United States
• USA
• USA

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 173-195) and index.

Contents

pt. I. The First Amendment at the Edge of Change. 1. Approaching Changes in First Amendment Press Doctrines. 2. Historical Patterns of Change in the First Amendment -- pt. II. Agents of Change. 3. The Changing Press. 4. The Emergence of New Media Technologies. 5. Political Pressures for a Changing Press -- pt. III. The Need for Change in First Amendment Press Doctrines. 6. The Existing Constitutional Model of the Press. 7. The Inadequacy of Existing First Amendment Models -- pt. IV. Shaping New First Amendment Doctrines by Defining the Press. 8. The Historical Identity of the American Press. 9. The Independent Nature of the First Amendment Press Clause. 10. The Press, Politics, and the Democratic Dialogue -- pt. V. The Future of the First Amendment. 11. Unifying the First Amendment for a Converging Press. 12. Applying the First Amendment to the New Press.

ISBN

• 0822937980
• 9780822937982

LCCN

94014020

OCLC

• ocm30108966
• 30108966
• SCSB-2030611

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library