Media & the Law

The Book Publishing Industry

The Book Publishing Industry focuses on consumer books (adult, juvenile, and mass market paperbacks) and reviews all major book categories to present a comprehensive overview of this diverse business. In addition to the insights and portrayals of the U.S. publishing industry, this book includes an appendix containing historical data on the industry from 1946 to the end of …

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Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture (Postmillennial Pop)

Spreadable Media maps fundamental changes taking place in our contemporary media environment, a space where corporations no longer tightly control media distribution and many of us are directly involved in the circulation of content. It contrasts “stickiness”—aggregating attention in centralized places—with “spreadability”—dispersing content widely through both formal and informal networks, some approved, many unauthorized. Stickiness has been the …

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Reel Justice: The Courtroom Goes to the Movies

From the earliest days of the movies, filmmakers have turned to the courtroom for stories because it is an ideal setting for both drama and comedy. Fans of those courtroom movies can turn to Reel Justice for a verdict on both recent and classic courtroom films. Informative and entertaining, Reel Justice rates trial scenes in films on a …

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Picture Freedom: Remaking Black Visuality in the Early Nineteenth Century (America and the Long 19th Century)

In the decades leading up to the end of U.S. slavery, many free Blacks sat for daguerreotypes decorated in fine garments to document their self-possession. People pictured in these early photographs used portraiture to seize control over representation of the free Black body and reimagine Black visuality divorced from the cultural logics of slavery. In Picture Freedom, Jasmine Nichole Cobb …

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Privacy in the New Media Age

“An essential book for anyone concerned with the increasingly ubiquitous clashes between a technologically borderless world, free press, safety and personal privacy.”—Charlotte Laws, board member, Cyber Civil Rights Initiative   “Elucidates a path that both enhances dignity and protects essential press liberties. This is a much needed work in our new media age, where forced disclosure and technology …

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Understanding Copyright: Intellectual Property in the Digital Age

Digital technology has forever changed the way media is created, accessed, shared and regulated, raising serious questions about copyright for artists and fans, media companies and internet intermediaries, activists and governments. Taking a rounded view of the debates that have emerged over copyright in the digital age, this book: Looks across a broad …

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Dateline Purgatory: Examining the Case that Sentenced Darlie Routier to Death

The brutal murders of young Devon and Damon Routier in the early morning hours of June 6, 1996, put their mother—Darlie Routier—at the heart of one of the most notorious murder cases in modern Texas history—despite her own throat having been slashed to within two millimeters of her carotid artery. The actions of a small-town police department and …

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Lowering the Bar: Lawyer Jokes and Legal Culture

What do you call 600 lawyers at the bottom of the sea? Marc Galanter calls it an opportunity to investigate the meanings of a rich and time-honored genre of American humor: lawyer jokes. Lowering the Bar analyzes hundreds of jokes from Mark Twain classics to contemporary anecdotes about Dan Quayle, Johnnie Cochran, and Kenneth Starr. Drawing on representations …

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NAB Legal Guide to Broadcast Law and Regulation

To guide the industry in the 21st century, counsel for the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and leading attorneys have prepared the only up-to-date, comprehensive broadcast regulatory publication: NAB’s Legal Guide to Broadcast Law and Regulation. Known for years as the “voice” for broadcast law, this publication addresses the full range of FCC regulatory issues facing radio and …

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The Big Trial: Law as Public Spectacle

The trial of O. J. Simpson was a sensation, avidly followed by millions of people, but it was also, in a sense, nothing new. One hundred years earlier the Lizzie Borden trial had held the nation in thrall. The names (and the crimes) may change, but the appeal is enduring—and why this is, how it works, and what …

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