Book Review: Privacy in the New Media Age, by Jon L. Mills

Abstract

Privacy in the New Media Age. Jon L. Mills. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 2015. 248 pp. $29.95 hbk.This book's opening sentence proclaims the utterly obvious-the media and personal privacy are inherently in conflict. Its final sentence, however, avers an oftenoverlooked reality in a rah-rah First Amendment society that, Jon Mills assiduously argues, consistently-save for a few minor hiccups-privileges a free press over personal privacy. The waning societal value at stake, Mills concludes, after persuasively demonstrating during the intervening 182 pages that privacy jeopardized by both new technologies and expansive definitions of newsworthiness, is profound and fundamental: basic human dignity.Indeed, this a book that makes the cogent case for an increased emphasis on privacy and human dignity, though it nonetheless recognizes the importance of a free press. A quartet of what might be called Mills' maxims offered along the way illustrates his thesis:** global distribution and anonymity expand the risks of privacy intrusions, the traditional gatekeepers and editors who tempered the media with profes-sional judgment are disappearing from the scene and losing their importance.** no doubt that there more bad information coming from more sources than ever before. More individuals are being harmed and will be harmed. There an alternative. Accountability for wrong and harmful intrusions possible.** The general public becoming skeptical of the institutional press without become more confident in any particular alternative.** the real world, people matter as well as theory.Mills, former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives and dean emeritus of the University of Florida's Levin College of Law, truly a privacy expert-and not just as a scholar or an academic, but as an attorney and a practitioner. In 2010, he represented the family of Dawn Brancheau, a trainer at SeaWorld Orlando who was killed by a 6-ton orca whale named Tilikum, in its fight to keep the video and images of her death out of public view. Two decades prior to that, Mills represented the families of victims of serial killer Danny Harold Rolling in their efforts to keep out of the media's hands gruesome crime-scene photographs. In between, he was involved in efforts on behalf of Teresa Earnhardt to keep autopsy images of her late husband, NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, from going viral on the Internet.Having more than earned his courtroom chops, Mill perhaps gives away his realworld bias and sense of pragmatism on page 27 of Privacy in the New Media Age. There he writes that reality, standing in contrast to the theoretical world, requires workable solutions to privacy intrusions rather than merely interesting theories that may generate another law review article. Amen to that, Jon Mills. As dean of a law school, he probably came across quite a few faculty members over the years who specialized in the fine art of publishing-into oblivion, mind you-the heavily footnoted theoretical.But rest assured, this book not that of a legal veteran rehashing tired or well-worn war stories. This fresh tome packed with the many modern disputes. For example, there are discussions of the 2014 appellate court rulings in both Obsidian Finance Group v. …