According to the Oxford Reference, media law is the legislation through which governments regulate the mass media; including issues of censorship, copyright, defamation, broadcast law, and antitrust law. I learned a lot about media law this semester and did my own research outside of class as well. Media law is essential to keeping the peace in journalism and entertainment. Media law helps determine what we are and aren’t allowed to see. Yale Law School says that it covers conflicts all across the board such as racist and offensive speech, pornography, obscenity, commercial speech, defamation and privacy, national security, freedom of speech, internet and broadcast regulation, manner of expression, and more. I feel like media law was one of the first things we learned about in my Introduction to Media class and it’s for good reason. It’s important to know and understand the ins and outs of protection and what you can and can’t do. It helps you see media, entertainment, journalism, and reporting in a better, more understanding way. For the most part, media law acts as personal protection for reporters and journalists. You can’t get sued for defamation when you upset someone about something you wrote or a certain situation you reported on. Media law is an essential thing to learn and understand.
