History and Theory of Freedom of Expression (SPC 4930-901) -- Spring 2002 -- Syllabus

Communication 4930 (SPC 4930-901)
History and Theory of Freedom of Expression
Spring 2002

Prof. Gil Rodman
Office Hours: Tu, Th 5-6p and by appointment
CIS 3040 // gbrodman@mindspring.com // 813-974-3025

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?
What responsibilities (if any) go along with the right to free speech?
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's empowered to make these decisions anyway?

Barring a small miracle or three, we will not solve any of the social, cultural, or political problems that lie at the heart of this class. This course is not designed, however, to provide you with the "right" answers or easy "solutions," as much as it's intended to make you think critically about the issues involved. Regardless of 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. As a result, many of our class sessions will generate heated arguments, and it's 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 and Of Education (Harlan Davidson)
- John Stuart Mill, On Liberty and Utilitarianism (Bantam Classic)
- The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States (Bantam Classic)
Available at Inkwood Books, 216 S. Armenia, Tampa (253-2638, inkwoodbks@aol.com).

[N.B.: The main texts of the documents contained in the books above are in the public domain -- and can thus be found in a number of different published editions. You should know, however, that (a) the assigned editions are among the least expensive ones available anywhere, and (b) the prefaces and forewords to these specific editions (which aren't likely to be available elsewhere) are part of the required reading for the course. I.e., you use other editions of these texts are your own risk.]
Non-book readings. These will all be available online or -- in rare cases -- as handouts distributed in class.
Reliable, regular access to the World Wide Web. Most of the required reading for this class will only be available to you online, and all of your written work will be submitted online. As a result, you will not be able to complete the course successfully without being able to access the Web on a consistent basis. If you don't already have access to the Internet from your home or workplace, you will need to make use of the free e-mail account and open-use computer labs provided by Academic Computing (LIB 608).

grading schedule

Half of your final grade will be determined by the following:

Attendance	10%
Participation	15%
Quizzes	15%
Thought paper	10%

The remaining half of your grade will be based on one of the following three clusters of assignments:

Plan #1	Plan #2	Plan #3
1 Case Study -- 10%	1 Case Study -- 10%	4 Case Studies -- 40% (10% each)
1 Response Paper -- 10%	4 Response Papers -- 40% (10% each)	1 Response Paper -- 10%
Take-Home Final Exam -- 30%

Which of these plans you choose is entirely up to you, and all three are available to you as long as you complete and submit enough assignments on time to fulfill the requirements (e.g., if your first completed response paper is #3, you've ruled yourself out of plan #2 since you will no longer be able to turn in 4 response papers on time). "Mix-and-match" combinations other than those listed above are not permitted.

Final semester grades will not use the plus/minus grading system.

attendance

Because issues will be raised in class that will not necessarily be obvious from the readings alone, it's important that you show up every time we meet and that you do so on time. Attendance will be taken at the start of every class period, and absences, late arrivals, and early departures will all count against you. If you accumulate more than 1.5 weeks in unexcused absences, I reserve the right to lower your semester grade by more than the normal 10% assigned to attendance.

particpation

Our class sessions will be structured almost exclusively around group discussions. 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.

This is not a course designed for the passive spectator, and you will be expected to contribute meaningfully to our discussions -- in-class and online -- on a weekly basis. There are three major pieces of the participation portion of your grade:

In-class group exercises
In-class discussions
Online discussions (Blackboard Discussion Board)

Participation grades will be assessed and calculated on a weekly basis, and the minimum level of participation necessary to earn a D for any given week will be to participate actively and meaningfully in our in-class group exercises. Additional participation -- either during our in-class discussions or on the Blackboard Discussion Board -- will boost your weekly participation score proportionately.

A few additional notes/tips re: participation:

Should you miss class, your participation grade for that week will consist entirely of your contribution to our online discussions. As such, you should plan to add to that aspect of our conversations more extensively during the week immediately following any class you miss.
Because participation grades will be calculated on a weekly basis, it will not help your score to "pile on" participation points one week in order to make up for low-participation weeks at other times during the semester.
While I will make an effort to insure that as many different people as possible get to be heard during our in-class discussions, unfortunately, our numbers are too large this semester to guarantee that everyone will be able to earn the maximum possible participation grade each week solely through their contributions to our in-class discussions.

quizzes

To help insure that our in-class discussions are productive ones, there will be weekly quizzes on the assigned reading that will work as follows:

Each quiz will consist of fact-based, short-answer questions on the assigned reading for the day the quiz is given. If you've done the reading closely enough to discuss it in class, you should have no problems passing the corresponding quiz.
Quizzes will take place during the first 15 minutes of the class period. Late arrivals will not be given extra time to complete their quizzes and no make-up quizzes will be given. Missing class (or showing up more than 15 minutes late) on a quiz day earns you a failing grade for that quiz.
Quizzes will be graded on a pass/fail basis. Each quiz will count towards 1% of your final grade.

Blackboard

Blackboard is a Web-based educational software package that we will use in several ways this semester:

as an informal space for discussion of the issues raised by the assigned readings and in our class meetings
as a means to communicate course-related information and announcements in between our weekly class meetings
as an online archive for official course documents (e.g., the syllabus, the assignment handouts, etc.) that's accessible 24/7
as the place where you will turn in all your written work for the class

Blackboard is accessible through the new USF "portal" site -- https://my.usf.edu -- which includes information on how to sign up for the USF NetID you'll need to enter the site. Once you have your ID and have entered the portal site successfully, you should click on the "Courses" tab at the top of the screen, which should lead you to a list of Blackboard sites for the courses you're enrolled in. Further details about using Blackboard for this course will be available on a separate handout.

written assignments

General rules

Your written work must be submitted online in the appropriate forums on the Blackboard Discussion Board. The lengths listed below 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.
All your work must be posted to the appropriate forums on the course website by 6 pm on the listed due dates. 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.
As a safety precaution, you should always keep at least a hard copy -- and preferably a hard copy and a disk copy -- of any written work you hand in.

Thought paper (10%)
This assignment (750-1000 words, due 22 January) 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.

Response papers (10% each)
You will write at least one -- and as many as four -- paper (750-1000 words each) over the course of the semester, each of which should be a critical (i.e., thoughtful and analytical) response to one or more of the assigned readings. Due dates are listed on the course timetable.

Case studies (10% each)
Over the course of the semester, I will post five case studies involving freedom of expression issues to the course website. For each case study, your task will be to write up a report that outlines the most important arguments from each side of the case (two lists of at least 10 items each), and that makes an argument (750-1000 words) for the best solution to the case. Due dates are listed on the course timetable.

Take-home final exam (30%)
The take-home final (due 7 May) 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 750-1000 words long and will be weighted equally in your exam grade.

"Drop the low score" option
Assuming you still do so on time, turning in more case studies or response papers than your chosen plan requires will allow you to drop the lowest score within the relevant category (i.e., an "extra" case study can't replace a response paper grade -- or vice versa).

N.B.: Further details about each of the assignments listed above will be made available on separate handouts.

miscellaneous

The purchase and/or sale of either written notes or audio recordings of our class meetings is strictly prohibited.
Cell phones, beepers, pagers, etc. are to be turned off or set to vibrate silently before you come to class. If your phone rings or if your beeper/pager goes off loudly enough to be heard during class, you will be required to leave immediately and you will not receive credit for attending or participating in class that day.
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 15 January explaining which class period(s) you expect to miss and why.

introduction and overview

Jan 8

no reading

philosophical beginnings

Jan 15	Areopagitica and Of Education, pp. vii-x, 1-56

Jan 22	Thought paper due
	On Liberty and Utilitarianism, pp. vii-xxvi, 1-63

Jan 29	On Liberty and Utilitarianism, pp. 64-107

Feb 5	The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States

court cases

Feb 12	*"clear and present danger"*
	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"*
	Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 US 568 (1942)
	Terminiello v. Chicago, 337 US 1 (1949)
	Cohen v. California, 403 US 15 (1971)

Feb 19	*subversive politics (part 1)*
	Debs v. United States, 249 US 211 (1919)
	Stromberg v. California, 283 US 359 (1931)
	De Jonge v. Oregon, 299 US 353 (1937)
	Watkins v. United States, 354 US 178 (1957)
	Lamont v. Postmaster General, 381 US 301 (1965)

Feb 26	Response Paper #1 due
	*subversive politics (part 2)*
	Tinker v. Des Moines, 393 US 503 (1969)
	Ladue v. Gilleo, --- US --- (1994)
	*hate speech*
	R.A.V. v. St. Paul, 505 US 377 (1992)
	Wisconsin v. Mitchell, 508 US 476 (1993)

Mar 5	Case Study #1 due
	*the pledge of allegiance*
	Minersville v. Gobitis, 310 US 586 (1940)
	West Virginia v. Barnette, 319 US 624 (1943)
	*flag burning*
	Street v. New York, 394 US 576 (1969)
	Texas v. Johnson, 491 US 397 (1989)
	United States v. Eichman, 496 US 310 (1990)

Mar 12	NO CLASS -- SPRING BREAK

Mar 19	Response Paper #2 due
	*the press and national security*
	New York Times v. United States, 403 US 715 (1971)
	*libel and defamation of character*
	New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 US 254 (1964)
	Hustler v. Falwell, 485 US 46 (1988)

Mar 26	Case Study #2 due
	*obscenity and nudity*
	Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 US 184 (1964)
	Miller v. California, 413 US 15 (1973)
	Barnes v. Glen Theatre, 501 US 560 (1991)
	City of Erie v. Pap's, --- US --- (2000)

Apr 2	Response Paper #3 due
	*miscellaneous first amendment cases (part 1)*
	FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 US 726 (1978)
	Board of Education v. Pico, 457 US 853 (1987)
	Forsyth County v. Nationalist Movement, 505 US 123 (1992)

Apr 9	Case Study #3 due
	*miscellaneous first amendment cases (part 2)*
	NEA v. Finley, --- US --- (1998)
	Reno v. ACLU, --- US --- (1997)

close to home

Apr 16	Response Paper #4 due
	topics and readings t.b.a.

Apr 23	Case Study #4 due
	topics and readings t.b.a.

Apr 30	Response Paper #5 due
	topics and readings t.b.a.

finals week

May 7	NO CLASS
	Take-Home Final due
	Case study #5 due