Legal Aspects of Media

Before taking the Legal Aspects of Media course, my goals were to learn all about the First Amendment rights in conjunction with media law, how they relate to media and to learn the guidelines and rules of the journalism/writing profession.  I also aimed to research the ethics of journalism to avoid judgments in writing style from audiences as well as learn the consequences of plagiarism in the working field.  To achieve this goal, I planned to research plagiarism and how it can affect a writer and how to avoid it by properly citing the work of other authors/publishers.  

My favorite assignment in this course would have to be the event outline.  Attending the Journalism Job Fair was very beneficial to my future success in the field and granted me networking opportunities.  It was also nice to reflect on the experience through an initial and final written draft.  It was nice to speak with professionals from different levels (graduate school and in the professional field) in regards to the steps needed to fulfill my passions in journalism.  

Of the course topics covered this month, I believe that defamation will be the most helpful to me as a communications professional because I further learned the importance of avoiding publishing defamatory content which could damage someone’s reputation.  I also learned to have a strategy in place to avoid liability for defamation.  The cases discussed (New York Times Co. V. Sullivan and Gertz v. Welch) helped me to comprehend how defamation works and the consequences associated with it.

I will use the knowledge acquired this month to prepare me to handle potential legal issues in the communications industry by retaining the knowledge regarding defamation, libel/slander, First Amendment rights, copyright laws, FOIA requests, etc. when preparing material for the public. I now know that violating any of these laws can be viewed as a crime; as well as the importance of a publisher properly receiving credit for their work.