The right to privacy and the torts of invasion of privacy directly connect to several other areas of media law and ethics. Some of the ideas that have to do with the right to privacy and connects to other parts of media law and ethics include appropriation, the publication of private matters, and false light. These ideas connect to other areas that include Electronic media and the selling of private info, commercial speech, and libel.
One of the first connections that I made from the chapter 11 to another idea we have talked about this semester is false light and its connection to libel. False light and libel are different in certain aspects such as how libel is required to be defamatory and false light does not. The connection that I made between the two is the extension of the actual malice rule to false light used in the same context to how it is used in libel cases. In the Time, Inc. vs. Hill case of 1967, the actual malice rule of New York Times vs. Sullivan (1964) was extended to include false light when the case had to do with public interest. This connection shows how the ideas of privacy connect with other ideas associated with media law and ethics and how certain aspects of each can overlap such as how they are ruled for example.
The next connection between the right of privacy and another aspect of media law and ethics that I made was between the publication of private matters and electronic media. In electronic media there are times when private information of individuals ends up on different platforms and therefore in the hands of different companies. A situation where this information is sold to a third party is a controversial topic that has recently come to the center of attention with companies like Facebook among others accused of selling information. This idea of divulging private information can be connected to (HIPPA) laws and the invasion of privacy that comes from violating these laws and exposing personally identifying information. Both of these situations is an invasion of privacy and is an example of how invasions of privacy can spill over into other aspects of media law and ethics.
The last connection that I made was between the tort of appropriation and commercial speech. The aspect of commercial speech that connects to this is false advertisements and the use of celebrities in an appropriating way. Specifically, there is an example that we have talked about this semester about a super bowl commercial that is advertising trucks that uses Martin Luther King Jr. and a speech he performed in order to try to sell their product. It was shown that the main idea of this speech and what was strategically left out of the advertisement was actually against the idea of materialism and corporations having power over the lower and middle classes. This is an example of how the car company violated the privacy of the Martin Luther King Jr. family and appropriated his image for their own gain.
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