Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Teaching Media Law in a Post-truth Context: Strategies for Enhancing Learning about the Legal Risks of Fake News and Alternative Facts

Teaching Media Law in a Post-truth Context: Strategies for Enhancing Learning about the Legal... Much has been written about the ethics of so-called ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative’ facts in a ‘post-truth’ era, but few have explored the legal implications of these and the flow-on to education in media law. This article suggests that there are clear legal risks for journalists adopting the hallmark practices of ‘fake news’—particularly in linking identifiable individuals to reputationally damaging falsities (defamation) and in making misleading or deceptive claims in the course of business (consumer law). Whether or not such an ethically dubious practice is actionable will depend on a host of factors including the strength of publishing defences, the availability of legal advice and the jurisdictional reach of any legal suit. This article suggests that a problem-based approach—including recent examples and classical media law principles—might encourage a ‘mindful’ (reflective) practice when assessing media law risks in the news room. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Asia Pacific Media Educator SAGE

Teaching Media Law in a Post-truth Context: Strategies for Enhancing Learning about the Legal Risks of Fake News and Alternative Facts

Asia Pacific Media Educator , Volume 27 (1): 10 – Jun 1, 2017

Loading next page...
 
/lp/sage/teaching-media-law-in-a-post-truth-context-strategies-for-enhancing-l5lr09kwKm

References (5)

Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
© 2017 University of Wollongong
ISSN
1326-365X
eISSN
2321-5410
DOI
10.1177/1326365X17704289
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Much has been written about the ethics of so-called ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative’ facts in a ‘post-truth’ era, but few have explored the legal implications of these and the flow-on to education in media law. This article suggests that there are clear legal risks for journalists adopting the hallmark practices of ‘fake news’—particularly in linking identifiable individuals to reputationally damaging falsities (defamation) and in making misleading or deceptive claims in the course of business (consumer law). Whether or not such an ethically dubious practice is actionable will depend on a host of factors including the strength of publishing defences, the availability of legal advice and the jurisdictional reach of any legal suit. This article suggests that a problem-based approach—including recent examples and classical media law principles—might encourage a ‘mindful’ (reflective) practice when assessing media law risks in the news room.

Journal

Asia Pacific Media EducatorSAGE

Published: Jun 1, 2017

There are no references for this article.