Course overview
This course explores the legal, ethical and policy regulations and issues affecting media practice. Students will examine how legal and ethical considerations align, intersect and conflict, and consider their impact upon media practitioners, industries and society. Students will analyse approaches to media governance and ethical decision making and analyse the effectiveness of current policies and approaches in adapting to technological and societal change.
- Privacy and confidentiality
- Ethical reasoning in practice
- Representation, diversity and responsibility
- Communicating about sensitive issues, understanding trauma and professional self-care
- Integration and reflection
- Introduction: Why law, policy and ethics matter
- Media governance, policy and platform regulation
- Copyright and intellectual property
- Defamation
- Contempt, courts and crime
Course learning outcomes
- Understand and analyse the media laws, policies, and regulatory frameworks in Australia, explaining how they enable or constrain effective media environments.
- Understand the legal obligations, rights, and ethical considerations affecting media practitioners in the execution of their professional duties.
- Critically evaluate the challenges and limitations of applying existing media laws and regulations and ethical codes and guidelines to emerging digital and new media environments.
- Develop critical thinking skills to identify and navigate the complex issues associated with media regulatory frameworks and ethical practice.