Regulation of Radio, Television Flashcards
structural regulation of broadcast
FCC licences all broadcasters
Media Ownership Limits: Radio
o Total stations owned- no limit
o Total national audience- no limit
o Total in each market- up to 8 (depends)
Media Ownership Limits: TV
o Total stations owned- no limit
o Total national audience: 39 percent
o Total in each market- up to 2 (depends)
Fairness Doctrine
doesn’t exist anymore
o Devote reasonable time to public issue
o All significant viewpoints presented
Candidate Access
broadcasters cannot completely block candidates for federal office from buying airtime one the station to promote their candidacies.
• Federal candidates
• Give candidates reasonable opportunity to buy air time
• At minimum: can’t refuse all ads
• Lowest rate for time slot
Equal Time
- Federal and state candidates
- If broadcaster sells time to candidate, must offer same to others
- If broadcaster allows candidate to use facilities, must offer same to others
- Can’t censor; not liable
- For primaries- equal time for candidates in same party
- A “use” is any presentation or appearance featuring the candidate or his/her voice
- Interpreted broadly
Equal Time exemptions
o Newscasts o News interviews o News events o News documentaries o Examples: SNL/TRUMP !!!??
indecency
• Patently offensive depictions or descriptions of sexual or excretory organs or functions • Only covers broadcast TV and radio • Only prohibited from 6am-10pm • FCC only responds to complaints • Penalties o Usually a fine called forfeiture o Can now be up to $320k per incident
how is indecency identified
o Must depict or describe sexual or excretory organs or activities
o Patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium
o Three contextual factors:
• How explicit was content?
• Was content dwelled upon?
• Was purpose to shock or titillate?
Pacifica Case
comedy skit with 5 bad words. Pacifica found guilty medium is pervasive, indecent content has time
Pacifica aired a monologue of comedian that contained what the FCC said was indecent language.
• Supreme court upheld the censorship claim
• Broadcast is pervasive medium
• FCC can channel indecent content to APPROPRIATE TIMES
Broadcast Violence
violent content is not regulated
• Violent context is not regulated in broadcasting
• Telecommunications Act of 1996- law mandating that TV manufacturers install v-chips in their sets. These chips allowed viewers to block out violent tv.
• Then the rating system came along in 1998 (VOLUNTARILY)
o Cover both general categories and specific kinds of content so that parent can use the v-chips to filter content by category or content type
• The FCC requires broadcasters (TV not radio) to air 3 hours of educational television per week and to limit the amount of ad minutes during those programs. RULES DO NOT APPLY TO CABLE
• No host selling- broadcast TV and cable TV
cable regulations
- Most of the rules imposed on broadcasters do not apply to cable (indecency and children’s TV rules)
- Host selling prohibition and equal time for political candidates do apply
- strong protection
Reno v. ACLU (CDA)
- CDA- makes it a crime to post indecent content online if accessible to minors
- Court struck down the CDA explaining that the Internet gets full first amendment protection and cant be treated like broadcast.
- Indecent and patently offensive lack precise definition in this case and also CDA in attempting to deny minors access to potential harmful speech they are suppressing speech that adults have a constitutional right to receive.
Ashcroft v. ACLU (Child Online Protection Act)
- COPA- prohibits commercial web sties from knowingly transmitting to minors material that is harmful= created to appeal to prurient interests that depict lewd or sexual behavior and lack serious literary, artistic interests or scientific value.
- Court noted that the government must prove that COPA restricts no more speech than is necessary to achieve the goal of making the internet safe for minors
- Court strikes down congress second attempt to regulate indecent content online
- Died in courts in 2009
Ashcroft v. Free Speech Colation (CPPA)
- Child Pornography Prevention Act- protect children from pedophiles and child molesters. No prosecution can be maintained if the material was produced by adults and was not advertised, promoted, described or presented in such a way as to suggest children were in fact depicted in the images. RESTRICTS SEXUAL MATERIAL THAT APPEARS TO INVOLVE A MINOR, INCLUDING VIRTUAL PORN
- Court strikes down law prohibiting virtual child pornography saying that state’s interest is not strong enough when no actual child is involved.
