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MEDA211 Media Law

10 cp
Prerequisites MEDA101 Theorising the Media
Teaching Organisation 3 hours per week for twelve weeks or equivalent of lectures and tutorials. These may include a selection of workshop exercises, group discussions and presentations from media industry representatives.

This unit examines the laws, regulations, codes of conduct and conventions that shape the production, distribution and consumption of world media with a particular focus on the Australian jurisdiction. The need or justification for, and the nature of government intervention in the media industry through a system of regulation and licensing will be examined. In general these interventions are either technical (for example, spectrum licensing) or ideological (for example, Australian content regulation), but extend to censorship, foreign ownership and cross-media ownership policies. Ideas of freedom of speech and of a free media, as foundations of a democratic society, will also be explored, as will the limits imposed on media content by defamation, contempt, competition and trade practice laws.

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