MCOM 451: Media Law - Exam 2 Study Guide

Vocabulary practice flashcards defining essential First Amendment media law doctrines, standards, and terminology covered in MCOM 451 Exam 2.

Vagueness

A constitutional defect in a law where a person cannot tell what conduct is covered, failing to provide fair notice to a person of ordinary intelligence and inviting arbitrary enforcement.

Overbreadth

A constitutional defect where a law clearly covers too much by sweeping in protected speech along with unprotected speech, such that a substantial number of its applications are unconstitutional judged against its plainly legitimate sweep.

Fair Notice

The requirement that a law give a person of ordinary intelligence a reasonable opportunity to understand what conduct is prohibited.

Chilling Effect

The phenomenon where vague laws, costly litigation, or severe penalties cause speakers to steer far wider of the unlawful zone and engage in self-censorship.

Prior Restraint

A government order or restriction (such as an injunction, licensing scheme, or gag order) that stops speech before it reaches the public, carrying a heavy presumption against constitutional validity.

Subsequent Punishment

A government penalty or remedy (such as libel damages or criminal prosecution) imposed after speech has been published and evaluated by the public.

Collateral Bar Rule

A legal principle requiring that a court order or injunction must be obeyed until lifted or overturned on appeal, even if it is later found to be unconstitutional.

Incitement

Advocacy that is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action, rendering it unprotected under the First Amendment.

Imminence

An element of the incitement test requiring that the intended lawless action is meant to happen immediately or right now, rather than at an indefinite future time.

Lawless Action

The Brandenburg element requiring that the speaker's goal be illegal conduct or force, rather than merely urging a change of opinion.

Clear and Present Danger

An early First Amendment standard from Schenck v. United States used to punish dangerous speech or bad tendencies, later replaced by the Brandenburg imminent lawless action test.

Fighting Words

Words which by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace; modern jurisprudence only recognizes face-to-face words likely to provoke an immediate physical fight.

Heckler's Veto

The unconstitutional silencing of a speaker because of an audience's hostile, angry, or violent reaction to the speech.

True Threat

A statement in which the speaker means to communicate a serious expression of an intent to commit an act of unlawful violence to a particular individual or group of individuals.

Recklessness (True Threats)

The constitutional mental-state minimum established in Counterman v. Colorado, requiring proof that the speaker consciously disregarded a substantial risk that their communications would be viewed as threatening violence.

Political Hyperbole

Exaggerated, non-literal political rhetoric that, judged in its full context, would not be perceived by a reasonable listener as an actual statement of intent to commit violence.

Viewpoint Discrimination

Government regulation that unconstitutionally singles out particular opinions, messages, or sides of a debate, forbidden even within otherwise unprotected categories of speech (R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul).

Bias-Motivated Conduct

Unlawful physical actions (such as assault or vandalism) selected because of a victim's protected characteristic, which may receive enhanced criminal penalties because conduct, not belief, is punished.

Actual Malice

A First Amendment fault standard requiring proof that a defamatory statement was published with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.

Reckless Disregard (Defamation)

A state of mind in which the publisher in fact entertained serious doubts about the truth of the statement or possessed a high degree of awareness of its probable falsity.

Convincing Clarity

The heightened evidentiary standard (clear and convincing proof) required for public officials and public figures to prove actual malice in a defamation claim.

Public Official

A government employee who has, or appears to the public to have, substantial responsibility for or control over the conduct of governmental affairs.

All-Purpose Public Figure

An individual who occupies a position of persuasive power and influence, achieving pervasive fame in society (such as a celebrity), and must prove actual malice for any recovery.

Limited-Purpose Public Figure

A person who has voluntarily thrust themselves to the forefront of a particular public controversy to influence its resolution, treated as a public figure only for speech related to that controversy.

Involuntary Public Figure

An exceedingly rare category of public figure who is drawn or thrust into a public controversy without any purposeful action or choice of their own.

Public Concern

A matter of political, social, or other broad community interest, determined by weighing the content, form, and context of the expression.

Presumed Damages

Defamation awards granted without proof of tangible injury, which require proof of actual malice under the First Amendment if the speech involves a matter of public concern.

Punitive Damages

Monetary damages designed to punish a defendant and deter future wrongdoing rather than compensate for actual loss, requiring proof of actual malice in public-concern cases.

Breathing Space

The constitutional principle that erroneous statements must be granted margin for error in open public debate to prevent self-censorship and preserve uninhibited expression.

Sedition Act of 1798

A historical statute criminalizing criticism of the federal government, cited in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan as having been repudiated by the court of history as inconsistent with the First Amendment.