Courses
• First Amendment: Students study the constitutional right of freedom of expression guaranteed by the First Amendment. Topics include conflicts between freedom of speech and national security; defamation and privacy; offensive and racist speech; obscenity and pornography; symbolic expression; commercial speech; regulation of campaign finance; Internet and broadcast regulation; restrictions on time, place, and manner of expression; freedom of the press; and freedom of association.• Communications Law: This overview course addresses issues in broadcast, telephony, and cable regulation; including broadcasters' "public trustee" obligations, the digital television transition, media concentration, cable must-carry rules, and application of telephony-based rules to the Internet.
• Introduction to Intellectual Property: This course introduces the core doctrines of intellectual property, including trade secret, patent, copyright, and trademark. It considers the rationales for intellectual property protection, as well as the challenges posed to these rationales by the Internet and digital technology, open source innovation, social movements, and the expansion of intellectual property to the developing world.
• Cyberlaw: The digital world of cyberspace presents a host of novel legal questions. This course explores specific problems that arise in the context of applying law to cyberspace in areas such as intellectual property, jurisdiction, privacy, and content control.
• The Law of E-commerce: This course explores the novel legal issues arising from the conduct of business in cyberspace, including whether cyberspace should be regulated at all by governments; emerging doctrines related to personal jurisdiction, electronic contracting, intellectual property, privacy, spam, mobile commerce, and taxation.
• Access to Knowledge Practicum: Students work on projects that promote innovation and distributive justice through the reform of international intellectual property and telecommunications laws, treaties, and policies that shape the delivery of health care services, technology, telecommunications access, education, and culture around the globe.
• Information Privacy Law: This class examines information privacy law with a special emphasis on workplace privacy, and covers consumer privacy and information privacy as against "War on Terrorism" law enforcement demands.
In addition, law students may take courses outside the law school, often for credit toward their degree. Courses in Yale College that may be of particular interest to students interested in law and media are:
FALL 2008
ENGL 467 01 (11343)
Journalism
Steven Brill
M 9.25-11.15
No regular final examination
Skills WR
Permission of instructor required
An intensive workshop in the art and changing role of journalism. Topics include definitions of journalism; the role of journalism in a democracy and a free market; differences among information, news, vicarious news, and entertainment; how different media work; knowing and telling a good story; the structure of newspaper articles, magazine features, television reports, and nonfiction books; interviewing; fairness; sourcing; the economics of journalism; and the importance of audience.
Fulfills the core seminar requirement for Yale Journalism Scholars. No prerequisites.
EP&E 211 01 (12683) /PLSC204
Ethics and the Media
Stanley Flink
Th 9.25-11.15
No regular final examination
Areas So
Permission of instructor required
Critical thinking about the history, theory, and practice of responsible journalism. The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, major news magazines, and network newscasts used as sources of ethical issues for discussion. Students act as an editorial board - informing themselves and each other about the challenges of ethical journalism, among them the role of the news media in the age of terrorism. The independence and competence of generic newsrooms are central issues.
AMST 319 01 (12476) /FILM427
American Documentary Films
Michael Roemer
M 2.30-5.20
No regular final examination
Areas Hu
Permission of instructor required
Meets during reading period
The documentary film from Flaherty to cinéma-vérité and beyond. Films examined for aesthetic value as well as social and political relevance. Emphasis on individual films and filmmakers. Screenings in class.
SPRING 2009
ENGL 467 01 (20583)
Journalism
Steven Brill
M 9.25-11.15
No regular final examination
Skills WR
Permission of instructor required
An intensive workshop in the art and changing role of journalism. Topics include definitions of journalism; the role of journalism in a democracy and a free market; differences among information, news, vicarious news, and entertainment; how different media work; knowing and telling a good story; the structure of newspaper articles, magazine features, television reports, and nonfiction books; interviewing; fairness; sourcing; the economics of journalism; and the importance of audience.
Fulfills the core seminar requirement for Yale Journalism Scholars. No prerequisites.
FILM 310 01 (21751) /LITR353
Theory of TV and Media
John MacKay
MWF 1.30-2.20
Final exam scheduled (Group 36) 05/11/2009 M 2.00
Areas Hu
Consideration of major issues in the study of visual and aural media, with a focus on screen- and console-based forms such as film, radio, television, and the Internet. Topics include theories of medium as they relate to theories of media; the interrelationships between television, cinema, radio, and the Internet; newsreel, documentary, and TV news; and the interactions between mass media and alternative visual practices.
PLSC 277 01 (21676)
Politics and the New Media
Paul Bass
M 1.30-3.20
No regular final examination
Areas So
Permission of instructor required
A study of changes taking place in contemporary American journalism. The impact of these changes on government and political campaigns.
MGT 894 01 (22574)
Media Econ&Financing Journalism
Stephen Taylor
HTBA
