Study Of Tort Liability Of The Mass Media Gatekeepers

Mass media is'The fourth power'of the power system of society, the power of which is rooted in its position as a platform of speech. Based on gatekeeping theory in mass media communication, the gatekeeper of mass media performs unique power of news freedom of this speech platform. As the development of mass media, mass communication permeates every aspect social activities, the influence on society and supervisory function of which become more and more important. However, as the freedom of news performed fully, conflicts between media gatekeeper and corporate personality was brought out. In such a situation, it is important to balance the benefits of two aspects. On one hand, citizens'rights of reputation and privacy should be protected; on the other hand, the important function of mass media should be maintained. How to balance rights and interests of both sides by legal means, is not only a difficult problem that the legislature and the court of China will work on, but also a significant issue that media law should face all over the world. From the perspective of mass media communication and tort law, based on the frame of news freedom and protection of personal rights, this thesis studies on tort reasons and particularity of mess media gatekeeper, brings a new thought on liability for tort of media gatekeeper in network age, form a review of liability for tort of gatekeeper. This thesis includes five chapters.First, this thesis analyzes the relationships between media gatekeeper and news tort. Based on basic theory of media communication gatekeeping, the thesis puts forward the meaning of mess media gatekeeper. There is a close relationship between gatekeeper tort and news tort; two of them are connected and different. Because of the great consistency of them on acts of tort, defense and liability, this thesis analyzes the liability for tort based on the analysis of traditional news tort. The subjects of tort of them are not exactly the same. Especially as the coming of network age, internet gatekeeper appears as a shock on traditional gatekeeping theory, a new thought of network tort is turned up as well.In the second chapter, the thesis analyzes reasons and particularity of tort acts of mess media gatekeeper. As a reflection of the freedom of speech and publication, news freedom realizes through gatekeeping performance of mess media. If gatekeeper misconducts or abuses gatekeeping rights, it should be responsible for liability for tort. As a special kind of torts, such act of tort can spread quickly and widely, and exert bad influence; it not only hurts the right of personality or other rights, but also disturbs ordinary mess media communication activities, goes against the presuming of news freedom.In The fourth part, the article describes the particularity of gatekeeper arrangements tort system. Firstly, the defenses of gatekeeper infringement is special. From the point of view'facts'and'perspective',the two most important aspects of Mass Communication, the carrier of the 'fact' which is represented by news media works is objectivity and the'real'is defense; the carrier of view vector is News Review comments such as the representative of the media, which is subjective and 'notary' is defense. In addition, although our country has no special'tort Press Law', but the current law has special provisions on media infringement including judicial interpretation on the right of reputation infringement for and the provisions of the network in the'Tort Liability Act'which is implemented lately.Finally, the article devoted to the analysis the tort liability of network gatekeeper As'fourth media', the rise of the Internet has not only impact on the traditional gatekeeper theory, also raise the problem of network infringement. The characteristics of network communication make the media gatekeeper function weak. Tens of thousands of Internet users emerge in this'shadow gatekeeper', who transit from 'public journalism' to 'grassroots journalism',from the'passive news'to 'Participatory journalism', with the network platform enjoying the right to freedom which is exclusive to the press traditional media gatekeeper. In third sixteen article of'tort Liability Act',the rules on'network users','network service provider' can be defined as the network gatekeeper legal recognition of tort liability, which is of great significance.