Laura Stein is an assistant professor of communication at the University of Texas at Austin.

• Contents Acknowledgments 1. The First Amendment and Communication in Democratic Societies 2. Rethinking Speech Rights 3. Social Mediation in Print and Broadcast Media 4. The Right to Public Space 5. Democratic Speech Rights on the Internet 6. The Future of Democratic Communication Notes Bibliography Index

"This is a thoughtful analysis ranging over history and recent cases."--Communication Booknotes Quarterly"An important work, offering sophisticated yet engaging analyses of First Amendment law and the media landscape in which we find ourselves in the United States."--Matthew Bunker, Reese Phifer Professor of Journalism, University of Alabama"A forceful and intellectually comprehensive argument that the First Amendment should be a positive, not simply a negative, guarantee that empowers and perhaps obliges government to protect the public ends of free expression. . . . Stein brings a breadth of perspectives and material to the subject that few, if any, have managed to do. Her book is an original and important contribution to our understanding of free expression in America."--Randall P. Bezanson, author of How Free Can the Press Be?