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May 11, 2025
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JOU 210 - Media Law and Ethics
Last Date of Approval: Spring 2021
3 Credits
Total Lecture Hours: 45
Total Lab Hours: 0
Total Clinical Hours: 0
Total Work-Based Experience Hours: 0
Course Description:
This course examines issues related to freedom of speech, analyzing the rights, responsibilities, and restrictions defined by the 1st Amendment. Using the media as a framework for discussion, students will explore the changing definition of the term “journalist” while examining the constitutional, statutory, and judicial imperatives giving reporters favored status in the United States. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the evolution of the nation’s court system and government’s interest in restraining access or censoring information before publication. Using a case study approach, students will discuss current developments in libel, restrictions on access to public documents, censorship, privacy, and copyright infringement. The course will also explore social media law as it pertains to blogs, linking stories, and copyright. This course helps students build confidence in their communication and writing skills while also enabling them to think critically, consider the viewpoints of others, and effectively express themselves, all of which will benefit them in the classroom, in life, and in the workforce.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: None
Mode(s) of Instruction: Traditional/face-to-face
Credit for Prior Learning: There are no Credit for Prior Learning opportunities for this course.
Course Fees: None
Common Course Assessment(s): None
Student Learning Outcomes and Objectives:
1. Discuss the current state of the law in key areas of mass communications
practice.
2. Analyze legal decisions to interpret changes in legal status for media
organizations
3. Discuss the structure of the court system and how law is developed
4. Define and apply legal terminology
5. Analyze the role of free expression and the media in light of the U.S.
Constitution, U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Superior Court, and existing law
6. Examine media law using a case study approach
Course Objectives:
Unit 1: The American Legal System and the First Amendment
Unit 2: Libel
- Establishing a Case
- Proof of Fault
- Libel: Defenses and Damages
Unit 3: Privacy and gathering information
- Appropriation and Intrusion
- Publication of Private Information and False Light
- Records and Meetings
- Protecting Sources/Contempt Power
Unit 4: The Court System
- Free Press - Fair Trial: Trial-Level Remedies and Restrictive Orders
- Free Press - Fair Trial: Closed Judicial Proceedings
Unit 5: Media Regulations
- Regulation of Obscene and Other Erotic Material
- Copyright
- Regulation of Advertising
- Telecommunications Regulation
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