Mass Media Law

Rodney A. Smolla’s Mass Media Law is a lively student-focused casebook providing comprehensive coverage of contemporary mass media law in a manner that emphasizes clear explication of the governing legal rules, lively engagement with the policy debates that surround those rules, and real-world exploration of the strategies and tactics that surround media litigation and regulation. The casebook draws on the author’s unique experience as a “cross-over” figure in modern mass media law, who has both written extensively on the subjects covered and been actively engaged as a litigator who has briefed and argued many of the principal cases covered in the casebook in state and federal courts across the country, including the Supreme Court.

The casebook delves into high-profile contemporary disputes surrounding mass media law, as they often reflect “culture war” divisions in American law and society. Coverage includes internet, cable, broadcasting, and print media, entertainment law principles, media liability for defamation, invasion of privacy, and violence (including litigation arising from fiction and docudramas), prior restraints, media access to government information and institutions, journalists and their sources, sexually explicit media, media advertising, copyright and other intellectual property principles, Section 230 internet immunity, internet content moderation, foreign media ownership, media antitrust and taxation issues, content aimed at children, and “behind the scenes” practicalities in media litigation.

Imprint: West Academic Publishing
Series: American Casebook Series
Publication Date: 02/18/2026
Related Subject(s): First Amendment