Week 9 - Class Notes (lecture)

Lecture on Beyond Breaking News

1.) Editorial page vs. Op-Ed page.

2.) News articles. Commentaries and Analysis. Staff editorials. Staff columnists. Editorial cartoons. Op-ed: Letters to the editor. Guest opinions. Syndicated columns. As others see it. Personal columns (Culture, Sports). Reviews (not to be confused with Culture advances.)

3.) Staff editorials: the institutional voice of the publication. Editorial board. Well-written. Take a stand. Recommend action. Give examples and evidence to prove each point you make. Do research; don’t write at the last minute off the top of your head. Write, edit it carefully. It should be the best, most thoughtful writing in the paper. It has a designated editor and editorial writers.

4.) Expert criticism vs. consumer stand-in reviews. Man-on-the-street and other non-staff reviews.

5.) What are they trying to accomplish, and what resources do they have? How well did they do, given their goals and resources? Were their goals realistic. A high school production is critiqued differently from a Broadway road show. Ditto for a high school orchestra and a big-city orchestra with world-class visiting soloist. No personal attacks unless backed by evidence: “He sounds like my dad singing in the shower.”

6.) Law and ethics

a.) Founding fathers wanted to protect the Press as the Fourth Estate. A check against government. To be able to talk about public issues without fear of government shutting them down for libel, like pre-Revolution and Central Asia.

b.) Protection is for SPEECH, including the press. No special privileges to speak of. Anyone who publishes is protected, because what IS “the press,” anyway?

c.) Libel is published defamation. Damage to character. Untruth.

d.) Until Times v. Sullivan, public officials and private officials the same. Feds could get you for sedition, and that was the main area.

e.) Times v. Sullivan established public official, and later cases, public figures.

f.) Truth is the best defense.

g.) Fair reporting privilege.

h.) Invasion of privacy.

i.) Truth is not a defense.

7.) Invasion into solitude. Sean Penn and Madonna’s wedding, Jackie O. sunbathing on Skorpios. Parabolic mike and long lens. Vs. lit bedroom close to the curb.

8.) Intrusion, public disclosure of private facts, false light, appropriation. H

9.) Copyright. 100 years. Applies automatically once set into concrete form. If on the Internet, assumed to have copyright.

10.) Trademark

11.) Taste and decency. Obscenity.

12.) School censorship.

13.) Ethics