Modern communication can blur the old line. A television broadcast, podcast, recorded livestream, text message, or social-media post may be treated as libel under state law because it is recorded or fixed. The exam-level point is simpler: identify the medium, then move to the substantive defamation questions rather than assuming the label decides liability.

Whether the claim is called libel or slander, the constitutional analysis still asks whether the communication asserts a verifiable fact, whether it is false, who the plaintiff is, what subject is involved, and what fault must be proved. A public official suing over official conduct does not escape the actual-malice requirement merely because the statement was spoken. A private person's claim does not become subject to actual malice merely because the accusation appeared in a newspaper.

Publication in defamation law means communication to someone other than the person defamed. It does not necessarily mean printing a book. A false oral accusation made during a meeting can be published for tort purposes even though it is classified as slander.

A radio host falsely states that a mayor accepted a bribe. The medium may lead state law to classify the claim as libel because the broadcast is recorded, but the decisive constitutional questions concern the factual accusation, the mayor's public-official status, and actual malice. If the host instead says, "The mayor's budget is a disaster," the evaluative judgment may not assert a provably false fact at all.

The distinction protects against a common error: using "libel" as a synonym for any insulting printed criticism. Insult, satire, and opinion do not become defamatory merely because they appear in durable form.

Libel and slander classify how alleged defamation was communicated; they do not finish the analysis. Printed statements still require the proper fault showing, spoken statements can cause reputational harm, and newspapers possess no absolute immunity. Medium may affect state-law details; fact, falsity, plaintiff status, subject matter, and fault drive the constitutional result.

Video lesson: Freedom of Speech: Crash Course Government and Politics #25