Five UNC media law faculty and alumni write chapters for ‘Social Media and the Law’

Cathy Packer, W. Horace Carter Distinguished Professor in the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, and four UNC media law Ph.D. alumni contributed chapters for the recently published “Social Media and the Law: A Guidebook for Communication Students and Professionals.”

Packer, Woodrow Hartzog ’11, Dan V. Kozlowski ’06, Kathleen K. Olson ’00 and Derigan Silver ’09 join six other media law scholars to help students and professional communicators understand the legal ramifications of increasingly vital and rapidly evolving social media. 

Chapters within the book address defamation and privacy as they relate to social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube; intellectual property issues; student speech; social media use in courtrooms; and terms of use. Current issues including copyright, online impersonation, anonymity, cyberbullying, sexting and WikiLeaks also are addressed.

“Social Media and the Law” is edited by Daxton R. "Chip" Stewart, an associate professor at the Schieffer School of Journalism at Texas Christian University.

About the the UNC-affiliated contributors: 

• Packer, who also is co-director of the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy and co-editor of the N.C. Media Law Handbook, wrote a chapter about the use of social media in courtrooms. Her research focuses on reporters’ rights to protect their confidential sources and information and on access to government information.
• Hartzog, an assistant professor at the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University, wrote the chapter titled “Privacy and Terms of Use.” His research on privacy, online communication and electronic agreements has appeared publications such as the American University Law Review and Communication Law and Policy. He previously worked as an attorney in private practice and at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. 
• Kozlowski is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at Saint Louis University and wrote a chapter on student speech. He has twice won the Laurence R. Campbell Research Award given by the Scholastic Journalism Division for the top faculty paper presented at the annual Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conference. He co-authored the student speech chapter in the media law textbook “Communication and the Law.”
• Olson is an associate professor at Lehigh University. She contributed the chapter “Intellectual Property.” Olson has worked as an attorney and copy editor. Her research focuses on intellectual property issues, including copyright and the right of publicity, and she is the co-author of “Mass Communication Law in Pennsylvania.”
• Silver is an assistant professor in the Department of Media, Film and Journalism Studies at the University of Denver where he is the director of the joint M.A./J.D. dual degree program. He wrote a chapter about defamation for “Social Media and the Law.”  He teaches courses on the First Amendment, media law, Internet law and political communication. He is the author of “National Security in the Courts: The Need for Secrecy vs. the Requirement of Transparency” and of a chapter in “Communication and the Law.”