History and Theory of Freedom of Expression (SPC 4930-001) -- Fall 1998 -- Syllabus

Communication 4930 (SPC 4930-901)
History and Theory of Freedom of Expression
Fall 1998

Prof. Gil Rodman
CIS 3040, 974-3025
grodman@chuma.cas.usf.edu
Tu 5-6p, Th 1-2p and by appointment

course website:
http://www.cas.usf.edu/communication/rodman/freedom/

course description and objectives
This is a course about the theory and practice of free speech as it has evolved in the West over the past several centuries. This is also a course that's more about questions than answers, more about wrestling with difficult issues than offering easy solutions. Some of the general questions we'll examine this semester include:

Is free speech a right or a privilege?
Who is allowed to speak and what are they allowed to say?
Does free speech necessarily carry with it certain responsibilities?
Is freedom of expression a necessary feature of a democracy?
What limits (if any) do we need to place on free speech?
What types of restriction on expression count as censorship?
Can we distinguish speech from action? Should we? And, if so, how?
And who is empowered to make these decisions anyway?

Barring a small miracle or three, we will not solve any of the social, cultural, and political problems that lie at the heart of this class. This course is not designed, however, to provide you with the "right" answers, as much as it is intended to make you think critically about the issues involved. Regardless of who you are or what you may believe at the start of the semester, this course will challenge (and perhaps even change) your current way of looking at democracy and free speech as they exist in the US today.

WARNING!!!
The subjects that we'll be discussing this semester are, without exception, controversial ones. The readings reflect a range of viewpoints on these issues, and it's likely that our group will hold a similarly broad range of opinions. As a result, our class sessions will undoubtedly include heated arguments, and it's quite possible that you'll walk away from one or more of our meetings feeling angry, frustrated, and/or offended. Nevertheless, I expect all of our conversations to be characterized by mutual respect. Impassioned arguments and strongly expressed opinions are perfectly acceptable in this class; verbal bullying and personal attacks, on the other hand, will not be tolerated under any circumstances.

required course materials

Books.
- John Milton, Areopagitica
- John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
- The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States
Available at Inkwood Books, 216 S. Armenia, Tampa (253-2638, inkwoodbks@aol.com).
Photocopied articles. Available from me and/or at the reserve desk of the USF Library. More details will be announced in class.
An e-mail account. Participation in the listserv (FREEDOM-L) that has been set up for this course will require you to have an e-mail account. For those of you who don't already have an e-mail account, information on how to sign up for one is available here.

grading schedule
Your final grade will be determined by the grading contract that you will complete and return to me by September 15. The overall range of options is as follows:

	***Attendance	10%
	***Participation	10%
	***Course listserv	10%
	Thought paper	10%
	1-4 response papers	10% each
	1-4 case studies	10% each
	1-4 pre-selected website reviews	5% each
	1-4 self-selected website reviews	5% each
	Take-home final exam	30%

All starred items are required portions of your grade. Further details on the various written assignments can be found below.

attendance/participation/pop quizzes
This course is geared towards in-class participation. It will thus be more enjoyable for all of us (and you'll do better) if you (1) attend class regularly, (2) do the required reading and (3) be prepared to discuss what we've read. Consistently lackluster discussions will force me to take drastic measures (i.e., pop quizzes) to assure me that y'all are doing the required work. In the event quizzes become necessary, final grades will be calculated on a revised schedule, so that the required portions of your grading contract will become:

	Attendance	5%
	Participation	5%
	Course listserv	5%
	Pop quizzes	15%

Because issues will be raised in class that will not necessarily be apparent from the readings, it is vital that you show up for every class meeting and that you do so on time. Attendance will be taken at the start of every class period, with both absences and late arrivals noted. If you have more than one unexcused absence, or if you are consistently and excessively late to class, I reserve the right to lower your semester grade by more than 10%.

In keeping with the University Policy on Religious Observances, students who anticipate being absent from class due to a major religious observance must provide notice to me in writing by 8 September explaining which class period(s) you expect to miss and why.

listserv participation
The primary purpose of the listserv is to provide an ongoing informal forum for discussion of the issues raised by the assigned readings and our class sessions. Prompts intended to spur on the dialogue will be posted on a semi-regular basis. Participation in the listserv is worth 10% of your final grade.

To be eligible for full credit for this portion of the course, you must (a) be subscribed to the list by 2 pm on 22 September and (b) have made your first on-topic post to the list by 2 pm on 6 October. The penalty for missing either of these deadlines will be a grade point for every week (or fraction thereof) that you're late (e.g., not subscribing until 24 September will cost you 2 points and not posting for the first time until 9 October will cost you 1 more point).

To subscribe to the list using regular e-mail, send a message to LYRIS@LISTS.CAS.USF.EDU where the body of the message consists of:

	SUBSCRIBE FREEDOM-L yourfirstname yourlastname

You can also subscribe to the list via the Web by following the instructions provided here.

Further details about the list (e.g., how to post to the list, what to post the list, how this portion of your grade will be calculated) will be sent to you via e-mail once you're subscribed.

written assignments
General rules.
Your written work must be typed and double-spaced. The page lengths listed below are based on pica-sized type (10 characters per inch) and one inch margins, and are estimates of how much you'll need to write to complete the assignments well. I will not automatically penalize shorter papers, but it's unlikely that you will be able to do "A" work if your papers are shorter than the suggested length. Also note that fudging margins and font sizes to make your papers look longer will not help your grade -- so concentrate on writing good papers, not what appear to be long ones.

Thought paper (10%).
This assignment (3-4 pages, due 8 September) will be ungraded. Assuming you turn the paper in, you should receive full credit for doing so. I reserve the right, however, to give partial or even no credit to papers that fail to meet the assignment's requirements. Further details concerning this paper can be found here.

Response papers (10% each).
You may write up to four response papers (3-4 pages each) on any of the assigned readings from 22 September onward. Each paper is due in class one week after the reading in question is listed in the course timetable, and each of these papers should be a critical response to the reading in question. Further details about these papers can be found here.

Case studies (10% each).
Over the course of the semester, I will distribute four relatively brief case studies involving freedom of expression issues to the class. For each case study, your task will be to write up a 4-6 page report that outlines the most important arguments from each side of the case, and that makes an argument for the best solution to the case. Due dates are listed on the course timetable, and further details about this assignment can be found here.

Website reviews (5% each).
You may write critical reviews (3-4 pages each) of up to four websites chosen by me (a list of eligible sites will be placed on the course's website), and up to four websites of your own choosing (provided, of course, that you choose sites relevant to the course's theme). The number of self-selected sites you may review cannot exceed the number of pre-selected sites that you review: i.e., if you only write two reviews of pre-selected sites, you can write no more than two reviews of self-selected sites. Due dates are listed on the course timetable. Further details about this assignment can be found here.

Take-home final (30%).
The take-home final (due 8 December) will consist entirely of essay questions and will be based on the assigned readings and our in-class discussions. It will consist of one mandatory essay question and two questions that you will choose from a larger selection. Each of the three essays should be 3-4 pages long and will be weighted equally in your exam grade.

Rewriting for a better grade.
At your option, you may revise and resubmit written work for a potentially higher grade. While rewriting assignments does not guarantee that you will receive a higher grade (it's possible, after all, to revise a paper without improving it enough to change its grade), it will never lower your grade. You must turn in the graded copy of the original assignment with any revisions you do. You will not receive credit for revisions of assignments that (1) you have already revised once, (2) were penalized for lateness, or (3) were never turned in at all. A maximum of 20% of your semester grade (e.g., 2 response papers, 1 case study and 2 website reviews, 4 website reviews, etc.) is eligible for this option. Revisions that do not result in a changed grade still count against the 20% limit. The final due date for all rewritten assignments is 8 December.

miscellaneous

Late work will generally not be accepted except in cases of genuine emergency. In the event that I do accept late work, I reserve the right to reduce its grade in direct proportion to its lateness. The minimum penalty in all such cases will be one full letter grade.
The purchase and/or sale of either written notes or audio recordings of our class meetings is strictly prohibited.

introduction and overview

Aug 25	no reading

Aug 27	Michael Tomasky, "Free for All"
	Nat Hentoff, "Prologue"
	Carolyn Marvin, "Bad Attitudes, Unnatural Acts"

philosophical beginnings

Sep 1	Areopagitica

Sep 3	Stanley Fish, "There's No Such Thing As Free Speech and It's a Good Thing, Too"

Sep 8	Thought paper due
	On Liberty (chs. 1-3)

Sep 10	On Liberty (chs. 4-5)

Sep 15	Completed grading contract due
	Herbert Marcuse, "Repressive Tolerance"

Sep 17	The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States

court cases
"clear and present danger"

Sep 22	Last day to subscribe to the listserv without penalty
	Schenck v. United States, 249 US 47 (1919)
	Gitlow v. New York, 268 US 652 (1925)
	Whitney v. California, 274 US 357 (1927)
	Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 US 444 (1969)

"fighting words"

Sep 24	Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 US 568 (1942)
	Terminiello v. Chicago, 337 US 1 (1949)
	Cohen v. California, 403 US 15 (1971)

hate speech

Sep 29	Pre-selected website review #1 due
	R.A.V. v. St. Paul, 505 US 377 (1992)
	Wisconsin v. Mitchell, 508 US 476 (1993)

flag burning

Oct 1	Texas v. Johnson, 491 US 397 (1989)
	United States v. Eichman, 496 US 310 (1990)

subversive politics

Oct 6	Last day to post to the listserv without penalty
	Case study #1 due
	Pre-selected website review #2 due
	Debs v. United States, 249 US 211 (1919)
	Stromberg v. California, 283 US 359 (1931)
	De Jonge v. Oregon, 299 US 353 (1937)

Oct 8	Watkins v. United States, 354 US 178 (1957)
	Lamont v. Postmaster General, 381 US 301 (1965)

Oct 13	Pre-selected website review #3 due
	Tinker v. Des Moines, 393 US 503 (1969)
	Ladue v. Gilleo, --- US --- (1994)

the press and national security

Oct 15

New York Times v. United States, 403 US 715 (1971)

libel and defamation of character

Oct 20	Case study #2 due
	Pre-selected website review #4 due
	New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 US 254 (1964)
	Hustler v. Falwell, 485 US 46 (1988)

obscenity

Oct 22	Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 US 184 (1964)
	Miller v. California, 413 US 15 (1973)

"time, place, and manner"

Oct 27	Self-selected website review #1 due
	FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 US 726 (1978)

the internet

Oct 29

Reno v. ACLU, --- US --- (1997)

settled(??) out of court
sex . . .

Nov 3	Case study #3 due
	Self-selected website review #2 due
	Commission on Obscenity and Pornography // Susan Brownmiller, "Should Pornography Be Protected as Free Speech?"
	Frank Easterbrook // James C. Dobson, "Should Pornography Be Protected as Free Speech?"

Nov 5	Susan Griffin, Pornography and Silence [selections]
	Sallie Tisdale, Talk Dirty to Me [selections]

. . . and violence

Nov 10	Self-selected website review #3 due
	Jonathan Wallace and Mark Mangan, "Bomb Speech"
	Nat Hentoff, "God, I Understand How They Feel, But When Will They Think?"

movies

Nov 12	Jack Valenti // Paul Schrader, "Does the Letter Still Rate?
	Peter Travers, "An X by Any Other Name"
	Benjamin Svetkey, "Why Movie Ratings Don't Work"

music

Nov 17	Case study #4 due
	Self-selected website review #4 due
	Reebee Garofalo, "Setting the Record Straight"
	Jonathan Alter, "Let's Stop Crying Wolf on Censorship"
	Michael Eric Dyson, "Gangsta Rap and American Culture"

Nov 19	Tricia Rose, "Fear of a Black Planet"

Nov 24	no class

Nov 26	no class

the nea

Dec 1

Richard Bolton (ed.), Culture Wars [selections]

the internet

Dec 3	Jonathan Wallace and Mark Mangan, "Memphis Rules"
	Donna M. Riley, "Sex, Fear and Condescension on Campus"

finals week

Dec 8	no class
5:00 pm	all rewritten assignments due
	deadline for listserv posts
	Take-home final due