Influences on the Media Law Literature: A Divergence of Mass Communication Scholarsand Legal Scholars?

Abstract

Although research on media law is conducted by both law school academicians and mass communication scholars, differences in institutional traditions and conventions may lead the two types of scholars to take different approaches to the study of media law. In this study, we used citation analysis, a bibliometric technique, to identify and compare the authors and works cited in media law articles published in law reviews and in mass communication journals. Findings suggest that mass communication scholars tend to cite theoretical, historical and philosophical works frequently; law school scholars tend to cite doctrinal works more often. Perhaps consequently, law review citations are to recent materials, while citations in mass communication journals are to much older publications. Notably, mass communication scholars cite their law school colleagues often, but citations in the opposite direction are much less frequent.