Course Announcement

Law of Electronic Media Syllabus, Fall 2000

September 12, 2000, E-mail to LEM Participants

Nicholas Johnson, "So You Want to Be a Lawyer: A Play in Four Acts" (1998)[There's more to becoming a successful professional lawyer than legal knowledge and skills -- as important as they are. This easy read gives you some insight to the instructor's expectations of you.]

Nicholas Johnson, "Law of Electronic Media: Concepts, Perspectives and Goals" (1999)[Law of Electronic Media, like any Information Age inquiry, requires some "thinking outside the box." This piece provides an early clue as to where we're headed and why.]

Nicholas Johnson, "A Day in the Life: The Federal Communications Commission" (1973)[A Yale Law Journal article that appropriates a Beatles' song lyric and then uses the entire Commission agenda from one meeting day to make the argument that everything the F.C.C. does is seriously flawed in one way or another.]

Nicholas Johnson, An Autonomous Media (1994) [An oft-used and translated piece designed to explain the U.S. system of media and its relationship to government, the First Amendment, and an independent judiciary to journalists and legislators in former Soviet republics and elsewhere. A useful, simple overview for students.]

Nicholas Johnson, A Fairness Doctrine Parable, as quoted in Brandywine-Main Line Radio, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission, 473 F.2d 16, 41-42 (D.C. Cir. 1972).

Nicholas Johnson, Interview/exchange during Chris Lydon's network radio program, "The Connection." The topic was "Decoding Hollywood Politics and Interests in Campaign 2000," September 12, 2000. [There is a transcript of Nicholas Johnson's remarks, and the program is also available in Real Audio streaming audio. (Click on "Listen Now." Nicholas Johnson's remarks start at 36 minutes 35 seconds into the hour-long program and end at 44 minutes 45 seconds. Real Audio provides a sliding control for selecting start times.) Guests on the show included Peter Bart, Editor-in-Chief Variety; Martin Kaplan, Director, Norman Lear Center at USC; Steven Brill, Brill's Content; Bernard Weinraub, writer for the New York Times; Ken Auletta, New Yorker Media Columnist.]

Nicholas Johnson, Test Pattern for Living (Bantam: 1972). [The entire text of this book is available online. "Test Pattern" is a play on the old TV set test patterns from TV stations. The book puts forth a description of ways in which TV programming and advertising have an often undesirable impact in shaping human behavior.]

Nicholas Johnson, A Fairness Doctrine Parable, as quoted in Brandywine-Main Line Radio, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission, 473 F.2d 16, 41-42 (D.C. Cir. 1972).