The SAGE Guide to Key Issues in Mass Media Ethics and Law

The SAGE Guide to Key Issues in Mass Media Ethics and Law is an authoritative and rigorous two-volume, issues-based reference set that surveys varied views on many of the most contentious issues involving mass media ethics and the law.  Divided into six thematic sections covering information from contrasting ethical responsibly and legal rights for both speech and press, newsgathering and access, and privacy to libelous reporting, business considerations, and changing rules with social media and the Internet, the information in this guide is extremely relevant to a variety of audiences. This guide specifically focuses on matters that are likely to be regular front-page headlines concerning topics such as technological threats to privacy, sensationalism in media coverage of high-profile trials, cameras in the courtroom, use of confidential sources, national security concerns and the press, digital duplication and deception, rights of celebrities, plagiarism, and more.  Collectively, this guide assesses key contentious issues and legal precedents, noting current ethical and legal trends and likely future directions.

Features:

• Six thematic sections consist of approximately a dozen chapters each written by eminent scholars and practitioners active in the field.
• Sections open with a general Introduction by the volume editors and conclude with a wrap-up "Outlook" section to highlight likely future trends.
• Chapters follow a common organizational outline of a brief overview of the issue at hand, historical background and precedent, and presentation of various perspectives (pro, con, mixed) to the issue.
• "See also" cross references guide readers to related chapters and references and further readings guide users to more in-depth resources for follow-up.

This reference guide is an excellent source for the general public, students, and researchers who are interested in expanding their knowledge in mass media and the ethics and law surrounding it.

William A. "Bill" Babcock (Ph.D. Southern Illinois University, 1979) is Senior Scholar/Professor of media ethics at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and Deputy Director of SIUC′s School of Journalism. Babcock also serves as Editor of Gateway Journalism Review. He also worked at the Christian Science Monitor as senior international news editor and writing coach, directed the University of Minnesota Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law, and was founding chairman of the Media Ethics Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

William "Bill" Freivogel (JD, Washington University Law School, 2001) is University Professor and Director of the School of Journalism at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He began a journalism career with the Post-Dispatch in 1971, and he worked for many years in the paper′s Washington bureau. He returned to St. Louis to become the deputy editorial page editor in 1997. In 1987 Freivogal was the main contributor to a newspaper series on the bicentennial of the Constitution that won the Benjamin Franklin Award. He also was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize in editorial writing. He shared the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award and National Press Club′s Washington correspondence award for stories on defense fraud at General Dynamics Corp.