Media Freedom in the Age of Citizen Journalism

Peter Coe, School of Law, University of Reading, UK

This timely book explores how the internet and social media have permanently altered the media landscape, enabling new actors to enter the marketplace, and changing the way that news is generated, published and consumed. It examines the importance of citizen journalists, whose newsgathering and publication activities have made them crucial to public discourse and central actors in the communication revolution. Investigating how the internet and social media have enabled citizen journalism to flourish, and what this means for the traditional institutional press, the public sphere, and media freedom, the book demonstrates how communication and legal theory are applied in practice.

‘This thought-provoking book considers foundational media law questions for a social media age: Who is a journalist? Is it every smartphone-carrying person who happens upon a news event or would such a broad definition ultimately unravel key protections? What does it mean to belong to the at times legally privileged club of journalism and who gets to decide the question of belonging? Readers will not always agree about who is who and what might be done, but they’ll be left with a much fuller understanding of the debate, they’ll be motivated by its challenges around the world, and they’ll better appreciate how crucially important solutions are not only to those who consider themselves journalists, but to press freedom itself.’
– Amy Gajda, Tulane University, US

‘Peter Coe has authored an important and insightful book that presents a robust, and highly persuasive, normative argument in favor of more vigorous legal protections for non-institutional media outlets. Using a comparative legal analysis, he carefully demonstrates why extending meaningful legal protection to the growing cohort of citizen-journalists will be absolutely essential to ensuring that “the press” can play its integral role in facilitating the process of democratic deliberation. In the era of Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook, Coe cogently posits that the concept of “the press” must include citizen-journalists – and, moreover, that these non-traditional reporters must enjoy both press protections and (at least some) press responsibilities as well.’
– Ronald Krotoszynski, University of Alabama School of Law, US

Coe博士的客籍民ulous and insightful research represents an important and timely contribution to the debate on press regulation. Policy-makers, commentators, and scholars should listen to what he has to say.’
– Paul Wragg, University of Leeds, UK

‘Concerns about media freedom are growing at the same time as non-institutional media become more important. This insightful and thoughtful book explores the concept of media freedom, its rationale and its justifications and provides an account of it which integrates citizen journalism. It is an important contribution to the scholarship on the concept of media freedom.’
– David Rolph, The University of Sydney, Australia

‘Media law and free speech scholars usually talk either about the fundamental issues of media freedom or the challenges posed by new technology. This volume deals with both. Coe’s book not only shakes the “dead dogmas” (to quote John Stuart Mill) of the legal notion of media freedom, but also shows how these doctrines need to be re-interpreted for the 21st Century.’
– András Koltay, University of Public Service and Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Hungary