Assignment Week Nine:
We all have fundamental freedoms protected under the First Amendment, including freedom of speech and the press. However, these freedoms are not without limits; libel and privacy laws require media professionals to navigate carefully.
Libel, a false statement that damages a person’s reputation, contains six essential elements of libel law that must be met for a case to be successful. There are defenses against libel, such as truth and fair comment, which protect journalists from frivolous lawsuits.
Ethical responsibilities of media professionals require journalist to use principles such as truth, accuracy, and objectivity. Various ethical decision-making frameworks exist to help guide journalists in their decision making, including the Golden Rule, the Golden Mean, and utilitarianism, to help professionals resolve ethical dilemmas.
Assignment Week Nine:
The courts have been consistent with the treatment of public figures with regard to libel.
Please find one story in the media pertaining to libel against a public figure. Report on the case from the perspective of fairness, explaining how the court treated the public figure fairly by incorporating concepts from this week’s reading.
Guidelines:
- Create a new page, title it “Libel” and add it to your drop down menu.
- Summarize the case briefly — no more than 3 sentences.
- Add a picture of the public figure accused of libel and a picture of the person accusing the public figure of libel.
- Use at least 3 terms from this week’s texbook reading as they apply to the case. Place these terms in bold in your article.
- Report objectively. Do not use “I” and “you”.
- Your article should be approximately 350 words.
- Finally, please do not forget to screenshot your work and submit it on Blackboard by Sunday at 11:59 PM.