This month’s class, Legal Aspects of Media, was a journey through important legal concepts to understand in public relations, journalism and marketing. I was surprised by the simplicity of the concepts. Granted, the premise of these concepts could cause one to question why people work so hard to exploit loopholes in the system based on the inherent moral dilemma involved with taking advantage of people and situations, but the laws are fairly clear. They are in place for protect people from those who do try to take advantage of people and situations. There are ways to correct many of these issues if you accidently violate some of the regulations. These methods are even outlined in the law.
It is difficult to determine which topic was most beneficial. Learning about the Freedom of Information Act, defamation and deceptive claims were interesting. I regularly deal with copyright and licensing works in the music industry, but the intrusion case study was truly beneficial. I foresee myself conducting a fair number of interviews, and understanding the laws surrounding interviews is necessary to avoid litigation.
My favorite assignment was the publication. This allowed me to further develop my portfolio and use it for a real world project. I pick my topics based on my current work outside school, and improving my techniques allows me to help my current film and music clients.
I am confident I can research legal issues pertaining to most situations I could face in PR. I want to avoid litigation and maintain a good reputation. I believe this course has helped me prepare for both those goals.
This class more than met my expectations. I am better prepared to avoid legal and ethical pitfalls than before taking the class. I improved my writing by better learning the publication requirements, and I thought of additional ways to improve while providing feedback to my peers. Reading the law is not my idea of fun, but understanding the concepts and safeguarding my reputation are important to me. This class helped me with that.