Media 101 Week 12

This week’s media class is about communication law that regulates the media. Students discovered Hollywood’s Hays Code, which highly censored movies from 1922 to 1968. Since then, we have the Motion Picture Association of America’s film rating system (MPAA), which is based upon age appropriation. The class also reviewed the NYTimes vs. Sullivan case from 1964, which U. S. Supreme Court rules that journalists are protected from being held libel for deformation unless the individual can prove it caused harm to them.

Fast forward to the digital age, we are ruled by net neutrality legislation is based upon a state by state case. Meaning that internet service providers control how fast we can stream movies and media over the internet. The class learned about intellectual property, copyrights, patents, and trademarks for artists, authors, and musicians to legally protect their work. We discussed Creative Commons free licensing website for the general pubic to use. We discussed digital rights management to stop piracy and the issue of privacy for everyone including celebrities and entertainers.

The class group activity was to research Federal Communication Commission (FCC’s) digital initiatives and students collectively shared their findings. This week and next week media students will also be presenting there research projects to rest of the class. Students will be critiquing each other’s presentation by giving positive feedback.