Some Explanation on the Assessments:

1. The Essay (40%) of final grade will be a research paper on a topic to be assigned in iLearn. This is due by 11:59 PM on Tuesday 5 May 2020

2. Professional writing will be in the format of an online mid-term examination (20% of final grade) on 24 April 2020 between 1PM and 3PM + reading time

3. Weekly quizzes consist of weekly discussion in the tutorials. This will be merged with the Quiz Test (effectively a final examination) for assessment purposes for a total of 40% of final grade.  We will discuss this format in the tutorials. This makes attendance at the tutorials very important. This assessments will be online on Saturday 13 June from 1 - 3 PM + reading time

Media law - is this something different from entertainment law? Yes and no.  In this course, our emphasis will be on 21st Century media, which is really entertainment.  Unlike traditional media law courses that focus on newspapers, radio, and television, we will focus on media that is more prevalent - the Cyber World.  This change of focus contains some challenges as the law is far from settled. Just consider, as newspapers fail around the world, computer gaming has grown to the point where gaming now generates more money annually than television.  We would be remiss and very out of date if we did not take up social media and all of its worldwide ramifications. To borrow a phrase from Charles Dickens, from the viewpoint of media law, this is the best of time , this is the worst of times.  The best of times because so much is happening, the worst of times because the legal landscape changes faster than we can adapt.

It is naive to think that we can predict the world of media five years from now. To avoid being legal dinosaurs, I have added a substantial amount of media theory to this course so that as lawyers, you will be better equipped to deal with whatever the future will bring.

This course contains 13 weekly topics that are described in the iLearn website. Power Point slides accompany each lecture. The lectures are available in live theatre as well as on recordings.  You are encouraged to attend the live lectures as there is frequently an opportunity for questions.

Attendance and participation in the tutorials are absolutely essential to successful completion of this course.  Assessment topics are frequently derived from the materials addressed in the tutorials. For example, much of the contemporary issues concerning 21st Century media and regulation is dealt with in the tutorials as opposed to the lectures.

Readings for this course involve a combination of: (1) The prescribed casebook; (2) Readings on Leganto, and (3) Current materials distributed in class or made available on iLearn

The prescribed casebook is Media Law (2d edition) by David Rolph et al (Oxford 2015).  This text provides a good foundation on which we will create media law for 2021

Our goal is to learn law in a very contemporary context. While details are provided on iLearn, and everything is subject to change, here are some of the subjects that we will be dealing with:

1. Media and Entertainment - what are they? Are they the same?

2. Freedom of expression

3. A bit of copyright law

4. The Nature of Media

5. Media in the Digital Age

6. Computer games as media

7. Restraints on freedom of expression - defamation, privacy, obscenity (whatever that means in 2020), censorship and suppression

8. Law of the Internet

9. Law of Social Media

Media law is constantly changing in an attempt to keep up with changing media environments.  In 2020, we address some copyright basics because that is essential to dealing with the new media - especially social media and computer gaming.