Mass Communication Law and Ethics

Catalog description

A case study-based Communication course introducing students to the legal and ethical environments underpinning First Amendment rights in the United States from the nation's founding to the present. Topics in law include intents of the framers, prior restraint, libel, privacy, obscenity, freedom of information laws, shield laws, copyright and broadcast and cable regulation. Practices of journalists, media relations practitioners and Internet communication will be examined. Topics in ethics concentrate on models for decision making in difficult situations.