Violence as obscenity : limiting the media's First Amendment protection / Kevin W. Saunders.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Saunders, Kevin W.

Series:

Constitutional conflicts.

Constitutional conflicts

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mass media--Law and legislation--United States.

Mass media.

Violence in mass media--Law and legislation--United States.

Violence in mass media.

Obscenity (Law)--United States.

Obscenity (Law).

Freedom of the press--United States.

Freedom of the press.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (257 p.)

Place of Publication:

Durham : Duke University Press, 1996.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This timely and accessible volume takes a fresh approach to a question of increasing public concern: whether or not the federal government should regulate media violence. In Violence as Obscenity, Kevin W. Saunders boldly calls into question the assumption that violent material is protected by the First Amendment. Citing a recognized exception to the First Amendment that allows for the regulation of obscene material, he seeks to expand the definition of obscenity to include explicit and offensive depictions of violence.Saunders examines the public debate on media violence, the arguments of professional and public interest groups urging governmental action, and the media and the ACLU’s desire for self-regulation. Citing research that links violence in the media to actual violence, Saunders argues that a present danger to public safety may be reduced by invoking the existing law on obscenity. Reviewing the justifications of that law, he finds that not only is the legal history relied on by the Supreme Court inadequate to distinguish violence from sex, but also many of the justifications apply more forcefully to instances of violence than to sexually explicit material that has been ruled obscene. Saunders also examines the actions that Congress, states, and municipalities have taken to regulate media violence as well as the legal limitations imposed on such regulations by the First Amendment protections given to speech and the press. In discussing the current operation of the obscenity exception and confronting the issue of censorship, he advocates adapting to the regulation of violent material the doctrine of variable obscenity, which applies a different standard for material aimed at youth, and the doctrine of indecency, which allows for federal regulation of broadcast material.Cogently and passionately argued, Violence as Obscenity will attract scholars of American constitutional law and mass communication, and general readers moved by current debates about media violence, regulation, and censorship.

Contents:

The public debate over media violence

The social science debate on the causative effect of media violence

First amendment limitations

The concept of obscenity

The history of obscenity law and the development of its limitation to depictions of sex

The law and depictions of violence

Sex, violence, and first amendment policy

Violence and the feminist concern with pornography

Statutes and implications.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780822317678

0822317672

9780822398929

0822398923

OCLC:

889886959