UC Research Examines Corporate Communications in the ‘Gilded Age’ of Free Speech
http://www.uc.edu/news/NR.aspx?id=17650[font face=Serif][font size=5]UC Research Examines Corporate Communications in the Gilded Age of Free Speech[/font]
[font size=4]New research finds "historical amnesia" in conflicting Supreme Court rulings regarding corporate power and the First Amendment.[/font]
Date: 4/8/2013 7:43:00 AM
By: Dawn Fuller
Phone: (513) 556-1823
Photos By: Dottie Stover
[font size=3]An analysis of U.S. Supreme Court decisions suggests historical amnesia regarding the growing power of speech rights for corporations in electronic media, versus the First Amendment rights of individuals. Jeff Blevins, associate professor and head of the University of Cincinnatis Department of Journalism, will present his research on Tuesday, April 9, at the 58th annual convention of the Broadcast Education Association in Las Vegas.
Blevins presentation, titled Historical Amnesia in First Amendment Jurisprudence on Corporate Power and Electronic Media, suggests that recent decisions from the nations highest court have allowed corporations power to speak to become even greater than that of human citizens.
In a bygone era, the U.S. Supreme Court had once predicated commercial speech rights on the publics right to receive information, and also understood the need to limit corporate speech even in the political arena in the interest of protecting the integrity of the publics electoral process, says Blevins. However, the courts most recent decisions have dramatically extended power under the First Amendment and have marked a new, gilded age of free speech.
[/font][/font]