Legal and Ethical Issues of Live Streaming

Legal and Ethical Issues of Live Streaming is indispensable to properly understanding the social impact of live streaming. While the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has seen live streaming surge in popularity, it has for at least a decade had a significant role to play in some of the most important political and social events in the world. This book provides the necessary foundation for understanding this technological phenomenon in its ethical, legal, and, ultimately, human context. It asks the right questions and provides solid answers about the consequences of live streaming for individuals, communities, and the larger world around us.

-- Steve Jones, University of Illinois at Chicago

This is a remarkable book. It tackles an issue—the relationships between streaming media and the law—that has been largely neglected in communication research. This relationship is one, too, that is little understood as a result, even in media law classes that depend on texts that do little to deal with this topic. It is thus a timely and needed addition to the literature of the field. This book forces us to consider whether our commitments to free expression still have the same purchase as they did when professional media organizations controlled the distribution of news and information now that they have been supplemented (or even replaced) by those whose personal freedom of expression supersedes the rights of audiences who may not anticipate the shock of viewing, or the consequences that may flow from doing so.

-- Robert S. Fortner, Calvin College

This volume unmasks the neutral nature of live streaming technology. Questions about what constitutes live streaming social media are central to this insightful collection. This work frames legal and ethical issues surrounding voyeurism that demean the sacredness of human life. The authors examine the dangers of this social technological moment. Legal and Ethical Issues of Live Streaming adheres to the warning of Jacques Ellul, asking questions about what ought to be done, rather than unreflectively accepting all streaming social media.

-- Ronald C. Arnett, Duquesne Univer