Journalism law, and the concepts of rights, responsibilities and the public interest which will all impact upon the effects and interpretation of law, are interesting to examine within the context of journalism. This was shown particularly in this week's seminar presentations that journalism is a largely self regulated industry, which means a lot of power is placed in the hands of journalists to employ their own ethics to decision making, yet there is still legal recourse for many aspects of this complex industry.
Tapsall and Varley state that within journalism law it is more a question of approach then content.
An area that particularly strikes me is defamation law, privacy and the public interest, and how these three intertwine. It is clear that a journalist must be incredibly careful with what they report, especially ensuring accuracy, as defamation can be viewed as a serious offence. On the other hand it is also difficult to find that line especially due to the rise of new media and the increase in celebrity news.
Something interesting that I found however, was an article in The Courier Mail that notes defamation cases are on the rise due to social media. Australian Defamation Lawyers principal, Barrie Goldsmith, said that "It is no longer something pursued solely by celebrities and big companies. Individuals and smaller community-based cases form over half our workload."
Has the world of social media enhanced the concept of defamation, or will it damage them and make it more trivial? Especially as this can occur do to content published on online blogs, a realm where people view themselves as publishers and perhaps even journalists, thus having an impact on the field.
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