{"id":824,"date":"2024-10-22T14:00:43","date_gmt":"2024-10-22T14:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/courses.dc.edu\/mediawritingspring2026\/?page_id=824"},"modified":"2026-01-12T21:47:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T21:47:07","slug":"week9","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/courses.dc.edu\/mediawritingspring2026\/week9\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 9: Media Law &amp; Ethics"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"765\" src=\"http:\/\/courses.dc.edu\/mediawritingspring2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/422\/2024\/10\/Depp-and-Heard-1024x765.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-825\" srcset=\"http:\/\/courses.dc.edu\/mediawritingspring2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/422\/2024\/10\/Depp-and-Heard-1024x765.png 1024w, http:\/\/courses.dc.edu\/mediawritingspring2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/422\/2024\/10\/Depp-and-Heard-300x224.png 300w, http:\/\/courses.dc.edu\/mediawritingspring2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/422\/2024\/10\/Depp-and-Heard-768x574.png 768w, http:\/\/courses.dc.edu\/mediawritingspring2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/422\/2024\/10\/Depp-and-Heard-788x589.png 788w, http:\/\/courses.dc.edu\/mediawritingspring2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/422\/2024\/10\/Depp-and-Heard.png 1384w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Assignment Week Nine:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Libel,  a false statement that damages a person&#8217;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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Assignment Week Nine:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The courts have been consistent with the treatment of public figures with regard to libel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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&#8217;s reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Guidelines:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Create a new page, title it &#8220;Libel&#8221; and add it to your drop down menu.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Summarize the case briefly &#8212; no more than 3 sentences.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Add a picture of the public figure accused of libel and a picture of the person accusing the public figure of libel.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use at least 3 terms from this week&#8217;s texbook reading as they apply to the case. Place these terms in <strong>bold<\/strong> in your article.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Report objectively. Do not use &#8220;I&#8221; and &#8220;you&#8221;.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Your article should be approximately 350 words.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Finally, please do not forget to <strong>screenshot your work<\/strong> and <strong>submit it on Blackboard<\/strong> by <strong><strong>Saturday<\/strong> at 11:59 PM<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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&#8217;s reputation, contains six essential elements of libel law that must&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/courses.dc.edu\/mediawritingspring2026\/week9\/\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-824","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/courses.dc.edu\/mediawritingspring2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/courses.dc.edu\/mediawritingspring2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/courses.dc.edu\/mediawritingspring2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/courses.dc.edu\/mediawritingspring2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/courses.dc.edu\/mediawritingspring2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=824"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/courses.dc.edu\/mediawritingspring2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":919,"href":"http:\/\/courses.dc.edu\/mediawritingspring2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/824\/revisions\/919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/courses.dc.edu\/mediawritingspring2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}