Media Law and Ethics (Nov. 16, 2009)

Announcements:

1. There will be a grammar quiz this Thursday about all grammar ever covered.
2. There will be no class meeting on Nov. 23.
3. The “Something New” assignment (see syllabus and add press release and speech to the possible formats) will be due after Thanksgiving.
4. Take John Watson’s class! Next semester, he will be teaching COMM-320 Reporting and COMM-504 Journalism Ethics.

After we (more or less successfully) tried to find out what Professor Eisman did during her day off and discussed the new Women’s Resource Center (follow the debate at http://www.theeagleonline.com/opinion/story/feminist-err-womens-center-wastes-money), we started discussing media law and ethics.

1. Media Law

Libel is a false statement that intentionally damages somebody’s reputation, and any alive party can sue for libel. For example, if a journalist accuses someone in his story to be crazy, the person accused can sue for being labeled a mentally ill person.
Usually, it is the publication that will be sued, but in some cases, journalists themselves will get sued. In some cases, it can be difficult for the court to decide whether or not the libel was actually deliberately damaging reputation.
For examples on risky statements that fall into the grey zone of publishing or not publishing, refer to the in-class “Print it or pull it” exercise.

Other important issues in media law are privacy and copyright law. For example, if you want to find pictures online that can be used without paying a royalty or copyright fee, you can use flickr’s creative commons. This application will tell you which images are free, which ones are free if you credit the photographer, which ones you can only use if you pay a fee etc.

For more information on how to avoid legal risks, you can check out the “Top Ten Rules for Limiting Legal Risks” by the Knight Citizen News Network. This link is also on our syllabus:
http://www.kcnn.org/legal_risk

If you are interested in media law, you should also read the brief on media law in the AP stylebook, which can be accessed via the stylebook online (through the AU library’s website or through http://www.apstylebook.com/ if you have a subscription).


2. Ethics

Ethics is a very broad field, that includes many grey areas and has become increasingly concerning with the growth of digital imaging software. Today, it is easier than ever before to alter images and produce text that has little factual bases.
In class, we discussed the New York Times coverage of the 9/11 attacks as an example of ethics. Whereas newspapers around the U.S. as well as international papers published pictures of people falling out of the buildings, the New York Times, as the local newspaper of the New York community, did not publish such pictures until several days after the attacks. This is an example of very ethical behavior.
Also, we talked about the question whether or not it is ethical to interview family members of murder victims: always interview them! It can be difficult and uncomfortable at first, but you never know what they might have to add to the story. As an ethical journalist, you can never assume anything. This is why it is important to talk to people and get as many positions on an issue covered as possible.

Different publications have different codes of ethics.
For example, the New York Times’ code of ethics (that we looked at in class) can be found here:
http://www.nytco.com/press/ethics.html