Indecency--arguably among the most provocative and incendiary issues in today's media--is speech at the edge of social tolerance. This timely volume examines broadcast and Internet indecency from legal and social perspectives, utilizing current cases and well-publicized examples. In exploring the issues associated with this highly controversial area, author Jeremy Harris Lipschultz makes headway toward an understanding of how indecency, as communication on the fringes of social norms, functions in defining free expression through specific types of speech. He contrasts conceptualizations of indecency and obscenity, synthesizes case law and social research, and develops theoretical generalizations for future research and study. His work provides a comprehensive examination of broadcast and Internet indecency issues and cases that serve to test generalizations about freedom of expression and one's ability to define free speech.

About the Author

Jeremy Lipschultz (Ph.D., Southern Illinois University) is the Reilly Professor and Interim Director, School of Communication, University of Nebraska at Omaha. He has written several books on related topics (Broadcast Indecency: F.C.C. Regulation and the First Amendent (Focal Press, 1997) and Free Expression in the Age of the Internet: Social and Legal Boundaries (Westview Press, 2000). He writes the New Communications Technology chapter each year for Wat Hopkins' textbook Communication and the Law (Vision Press, 2005). Lipschultz is co-author of Crime and Local TV News: Dramatic, Breaking and Live from the Scene (LEA, 2002), and Mass Media, an Aging Population and the Baby Boomers (forthcoming). He has written numberous scholarly articles in refereed publications such as Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Educational Gerontology, Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, Journal of Radio Studies, Newpaper Research Journal, Studies in Media & Information Literacy.

Reviews

"Broadcast and Internet indecency are fascinating areas of research. The issue of whether offensive speech that isn't legally obscene should be regulated has captured the interest of numerous legal scholars since the 1970s. In this book, Jeremy Lipschultz explores indecency from legal, social and theoretical perspectives. This alone makes this work an important contribution to the discourse of freedom of speech, especially "offensive" speech.

Those of us who have studied the regulation of indecency know that this subject can become clouded by self-righteousness and politics. I welcome Jeremy Lipschultz's effort to bring such a broad range of approaches into the study of indecency regulation. He certainly has done a great deal of work in this area and this book allows him to put it all together into a coherent and meaningful whole."

Milagros Rivera Sanchez
Chair, Communications and New Media Program
National University of Singapore

Book Information
ISBN 9780805859102
Author Jeremy Lipschultz
Format Paperback
Page Count 412
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Inc
Weight(grams) 680g