INTRODUCTION:

Regulation.  Some love it.  Some hate it.  Some of it works and makes the world a better place and some of it is ineffective and counterproductive.  How is mass media regulated?  What is the one industry named in the U.S. Constitution as specifically needing protection?  Read the chapter to find out and then take the quiz.

Your assignment this week is a big one, so I’m giving you extra time to finish it.  You’ll have until the end of classes to submit it.  Check out the description for more info, then join the discussion on an ethical issue one of our reporters in struggling with.

LESSON OBJECTIVES:

• First Amendment
• Libel and Slander
• Prior Restraint

READING:  Chapter 14 “Media Freedom, Regulation and Ethics’

QUIZ:  Chapter 14 Quiz

ASSIGNMENT:  We need you to write a 2000 word investigative report on a practice in the mass media that the general public is not aware of and would be appalled by.  Choose from a variety of topics or suggest your own on the discussion board.  Potential subjects include:

• Investigate a specific advertorial in a newspaper or magazine and dig into who the author really is, how the ad is designed to mimic the rest of the periodical, etc.
• Investigate product placement in a recent film or TV show and find out as much about the situation as you can, including how much the company paid to have the product in the film/show.
• Investigate a specific example of a photo being manipulated for a major magazine and get as much detail as you can on how the photograph was changed.  This could be a celebrity getting Photoshopped to look more attractive or a news magazine fabricating a photograph to better fit their needs.
• This is due the last day of classes.

How do you turn this in?  Please email me this assignment as a Word document at rob.prince@alaska.edu.

DISCUSSION:  A major resort in Key West has just offered our Newspaper’s travel editor a free trip down to write a review about them.  She’s a great writer who’s been with us for a long time.  She won’t quit if we don’t let her go, but she’s definitely earned it.  Should we let her go?  How would our readers react if they knew the trip was paid for by the resort?  How might this affect office morale?  Will the other reporters be jealous?  Pick a side and argue your point.  Respond to the discussion post in the conference room.