Professor Siobhan Moroney
Lake Forest College
moroney@lfc.edu
Politics 224

This course will cover mass media and its effect on political institutions, campaigns, elections, public opinion and civic
attitudes. Divided roughly among three segments, news, campaigns and entertainment, the course will take a critical approach
to media business, information consumers, government's role as regulator, technological changes and free speech issues. In the
wake of a presidential election, we have a unique opportunity to see how media coverage, the press, the campaigns, and the new
medium of the internet influenced public perceptions about the candidates and the political process.

We will be reading the following cases on issues of press reporting
Schenck v. United States
Near v. Minnesota
Masson v. New Yorker
Hustler v. Falwell
New York Times v. Sullivan
Branzburg v. Hayes
New York Times v. United States

and on pornography and obscenity.
Jenkins v. Georgia
Board of Education v. Pico
Roth v. United States
Stanley v. Georgia
Miller v. California
FCC v. Pacifica
United States v. Reidel
New York v. Ferber
Reno v. ACLU
Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition