Some Explanation on the Assessments:

1. Professional advice (50% of final grade) will be on a topic to be assigned on iLearn and due on 31 March 2022 by 5pm.

2. Research Essay (50% of final grade) will be on a topic to be assigned on iLearn and due on 3 June 2022 by 5pm.

Late Assessment Penalty

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, (a) a penalty for  lateness will apply – 10 marks out of 100 credit will be deducted per day for assignments submitted after the due date – and (b) no assignment will be accepted seven days (incl.weekends) after the original submission deadline. No late submissions will be accepted for timed assessments – e.g. quizzes, online tests.

All assessments are submitted electronically. Turnitin plagiarism detection software is used to check all written assessments.

Students should carefully check that they submit the correct file for an assessment as no re-submissions will be accepted after the due date and time, including instances where students upload an incorrect file in error.

Word limits are strictly applied. Work above the word limit will not be marked.  Footnotes are to be used only for referencing. Referencing must conform to the requirements set out in the current version of Australian Guide to Legal Citation.

With respect to moderation, detailed rubrics will be made available on iLearn.  All fail papers are double-marked.

Media law - is this something different from entertainment law? Yes and no. In this course, our emphasis will be on the internet in 2022.  Although increasingly less relevant, law of  'traditional media' (newspapers, radio, and television) continues to inform the law of the internet. Consequently, we learn much of the law through more traditional media. As these laws have been imposed on the internet, the traditional alws continue to be relevant.  However, the focus of this course will be on more contemporray applications such as social media and whatever is going to be new media over the next 5 years. Just consider, as newspapers fail around the world, computer gaming has grown to the point where gaming now generates more annual revenue than free to air 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  We would be remiss and very out of date if we did not take up social media and all of its worldwide ramifications.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 times, this is the worst of times.  The best of times because so much is happening, the worst of times because the law is incredibly out of date.

It is naive to think that we can predict the world of media five years from now. To avoid being legal dinosaurs, there is a component of media theory in this course so that as lawyers, you will be better equipped to deal with whatever the future will bring. We make good use of Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan who relished controversy, taunted academics (though he was one) and was a popular television personality in his own right.

This course contains 12 weekly topics that are described on iLearn page. Power Point slides accompany each lecture. The lectures are only available on ECHO recordings. Lectures will be conducted by Daniela Simone (weeks 1-2) and Harry Melkonian (weeks 5-12). 

Tutorials commence in Week 2 and continue through Week 13 (tutorials follow a week behind the lectures). Attendance and participation in the tutorials is essential to successful completion of this course. It is expected that cameras will be turned on during all of the Zoom tutorials.

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 2022!

Our goal is to learn law in a very contemporary context. While details are provided on iLearn, and everything is subject to change depending on current events. Here are the primary topics we will be dealing with:

• The Nature of Media 
• Freedom of Expression
• Restraints on Freedom of Expression - defamation, privacy, copyright, obscenity (whatever that means in the 21st Century), censorship, contempt of court and suppression
• Intellectual Property Issues (owning and using media content)
• Online Intermediary Liability in Australia - What's Happening?
• Law of Social Media

Face to face Tutorials commence in Week 2

Defamation liability of online intermediaries is a major issue in Australia, especially in light of the 2021 High Court decision in Fairfax Media v Voller. In light of the Voller case, Australia is attempting to modernise its defamation law. This is a work in progress and will receive substantial attention

As per University and departmental policy, students should not send emails to faculty members but should exclusively communicate through the iLearn communication facilities:

• Any questions about the unit content, classes or assessments should be posted in the discussion forum - not in private messaging. Please ensure you have read the Unit Guide and instructions on iLearn carefully before posting questions about textbooks or assessments. The unit convenor will check the forum regularly and will endeavour to respond to questions within 2 working days. 
• Communications that are directed to Dr Melkonian should so indicate in the subject line.
• For messages about your own personal circumstances, please use the private chat function on iLearn.