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Southern Utah University

Fall Semester 2026

COMM 4260 - Media Law

COMM 4260-30I

Course:	COMM 4260-30I
Credits:	3
Term:	Fall Semester 2026
Department:	Communication
CRN:	32520

Course Description

An overview of legal and ethical considerations for media practitioners. Study areas include but are not limited to libel, privacy, broadcast regulations, advertising regulation, online and social media implications, and First Amendment law. (Fall) [Graded (Standard Letter)]
This is an asynchronous online course delivered through Canvas. There are no designated meeting times. The weekly schedule runs Monday through Sunday, and assignment deadlines fall on Sunday at 11:59 p.m. Mountain Time. You may work at your own pace as long as you meet the scheduled deadlines.
Media law is usually taught doctrine first and consequences later. This course runs the other way around. Each module opens with a film — most of them true stories — that puts you inside the decision before you know the rule. You watch a reporter promise a source confidentiality, an editor decide whether to publish classified documents, or a publication get sued out of existence. Then you read the law that governed what you just watched, and you write about the gap between what felt right on screen and what the courts actually held.
Media law is not a body of trivia. It is a set of judgment calls made under pressure, usually on deadline, usually by someone who is not a lawyer. The films make the pressure legible. The doctrine tells you what to do about it.

Required Texts

Required: Mark Hanebutt, Media Law: A Guide to Understanding Mass Communication Law, 6th edition (Kendall Hunt, 2026).

Ebook ISBN 9798385190034, approximately $80 for 180 days of access. Print ISBN 9798385190027, approximately $130.
The ebook expires at the end of the access period. If you expect to work in media and want a reference you keep, buy print — several of you will be looking things up in this book in three years.
A chapter is assigned with every module and listed in the Course Outline. Read the chapter first, then watch the film, then write. The chapter tells you what the law is; the film shows you why anyone cares.
The book is a narrative text, not a casebook. It explains New York Times v. Sullivan, Branzburg v. Hayes, and Miller v. California; it does not reprint them. That is deliberate. One of this course's learning outcomes is that you can locate and read an actual court opinion yourself, and that cannot be learned from a summary. The Foundations assignments and the IRAC briefs send you to the real opinions; the chapter tells you what you are looking for before you go looking.
Also required: the module lessons, films, linked court opinions, and videos in Canvas. All of it is fair game on exams, textbook or not. Where a module lesson and the textbook disagree, the lesson is the more recent of the two — the author says in his own introduction that the law changes daily and students should watch for developments affecting the accuracy of the text.
Films. Five stream free with ads. The remainder are rentals of roughly $4 to $6, and each has a documented free alternative that earns full credit. A complete access table is posted in Canvas. Do not rent anything before the library announcement in the first week — licensed access is being arranged through the SUU library.

Learning Outcomes

| If you successfully complete this course, you will be able to:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of the organization, role, and function of the American legal system, including state and federal courts, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Utah court system.
2. Demonstrate the ability to locate case law through research and read it effectively.
3. Demonstrate the ability to research and apply statutory law.
4. Demonstrate the ability to write IRAC-style briefs and memos.
5. Identify and apply pertinent Supreme Court precedents to factual and hypothetical situations across a broad spectrum of media law issues — the First Amendment, prior restraint, libel and slander, privacy, free press/fair trial conflicts, newsgatherer’s privilege, obscenity and pornography, broadcast regulation, advertising regulation, freedom of information, and intellectual property.

Course Requirements

Your grade is based on your performance on the following:
Syllabus Quiz — 10 points. A short quiz confirming you have read and understood the syllabus.
Foundations — 4 assignments at 10 points each, 40 points. Early-semester assignments that prepare you for later work: reading cases and locating the holding, identifying and interpreting statutes through research, identifying case law through research, and writing in IRAC style.
IRAC-Style Briefs and Memos — 4 assignments at 25 points each, 100 points. After you have been introduced to IRAC writing, you will compose four briefs or memos in IRAC style, applying precedent to a fact pattern.
Film Responses — 10 at 10 points each, 100 points. A short written response connecting each module’s film or documentary to that module’s legal concept. Describe the decision a character faced, state the controlling rule, and explain what the law would actually have required. The gap between the two is the assignment.
Exams — 2 midterms and a final at 50 points each, 150 points. Multiple-choice, matching, and application items drawn from the lessons, the assigned textbook chapters, and the videos. None of the exams is comprehensive. Midterm 1 covers Modules 1–5, Midterm 2 covers Modules 6–9, and the Final covers Modules 10–13.
Case Study — 50 points. The capstone. Apply appropriate case and statutory law to a fact pattern and write a 2,500-word legal opinion and recommendation in IRAC style.
Total: 450 points. 90–100% = A · 80–89% = B · 70–79% = C · 60–69% = D · below 60% = F. Grades are not rounded up.

Course Outline

Instructor's policies on late assignments and/or makeup work

Exams must be completed in the timeframe provided in the Course Outline. Late exams are not permitted absent a prior arrangement or a bona fide, documented emergency.
Other assignments (foundational, IRAC, film responses, case study) may be submitted up to three days after the due date with an automatic 10% penalty, plus an additional 10% for every 24 hours thereafter. After three days, the assignment is no longer accepted. Exceptions are limited to serious illness, family emergency, or documented university-related travel; the instructor is the final arbiter of what constitutes an emergency. Students traveling for university activities are expected to complete quizzes and assignments before traveling, or to make arrangements before leaving campus.

Attendance Policy

This is an asynchronous online course delivered through Canvas. There are no designated meeting times. The weekly schedule runs Monday through Sunday, and assignment deadlines fall on Sunday at 11:59 p.m. Mountain Time. You may work at your own pace as long as you meet the scheduled deadlines.

Course Fees

N/A

Additional Course Policies and Resources

Department of Communication AI Policy AI cannot substitute for foundational learning. Students must acquire disciplinary knowledge and critical thinking skills in order to evaluate AI outputs appropriately. Thus, the Communication Department will maintain a 25% tolerance threshold for AI use in completing assignments. That means, unless explicitly stated by your instructor for a specific assignment, any work that is submitted as AI generated at a rate of 26% or higher will receive a zero on their grade and require a conversation with the instructor. In those cases where assignment instructions allow for AI use, students must certify that they have reviewed, verified and edited all AI outputs, which may include AI prompts used. Students should treat AI as a partner in thought and creation, not as a shortcut or a substitute for human expertise, ethics, and judgment. Students should not input sensitive, personal, confidential, copyrighted or proprietary information into public AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) as it is illegal and violates expectations of privacy and academic/creative work. AI is allowed for certain assignments (see individual assignment instructions for details). However, presenting AI-generated work as entirely one’s own in a course that does not permit such use, or using AI in ways explicitly prohibited in assignment instructions, constitutes a violation of SUU Policy 6.33: Academic Misconduct and opens the violator up to a series of potential sanctions.
AI in this course specifically The department policy applies here as written, with a 25% tolerance threshold unless an assignment says otherwise. Three things are specific to media law.
AI models fabricate case citations. This is the single most important thing to know in this course. Large language models invent plausible-looking case names, reporter volumes, page numbers, and holdings for cases that do not exist. They do it confidently and in correct citation format. Courts have sanctioned practicing attorneys for filing briefs containing them — this is not a hypothetical risk, it is a recurring news story about real lawyers losing real money.
The rule that follows: if you cite a case in this class, you must have read it. Not a summary of it, not a description of it — the opinion. Verify every citation against the actual text before it goes into your paper. A fabricated citation in an IRAC brief or the case study is treated as a fabricated source, which is an academic integrity matter regardless of how it was produced.
Reading a case is the skill being assessed. The Foundations assignments and the IRAC briefs exist to prove you can locate an opinion, find the holding, and apply it. An AI summary of a case is not that skill — it is a substitute for it, which is exactly what the department policy says AI cannot be. Use of AI to produce the analysis in an IRAC brief or the case study is prohibited.
Where AI is permitted the assignment instructions will say so explicitly, along with the limits, and you must certify that you reviewed, verified, and edited every output, including the prompts, as the department policy requires. AI is generally useful in this course for explaining a term you do not know, suggesting where to look next, and checking your own finished prose for clarity.
Campus resources. Every SUU student is entitled to campus resources and services, including the Writing Center, the Disability Resource Center, and counseling and wellness services. Online students have access to the same services; ask me if you are not sure how to reach them remotely.
A note on course materials. Media law is taught through real cases, and several involve mature subject matter — obscenity doctrine, defamation of public figures, and privacy litigation among them. One film, The People vs. Larry Flynt, is rated R with substantial mature content and is optional for everyone; the governing opinion and the assigned clips are sufficient for full credit. Where a module includes difficult material, the module description says so in advance.

ADA Statement

Students with medical, psychological, learning, or other disabilities desiring academic adjustments, accommodations, or auxiliary aids will need to contact the Disability Resource Center, located in Room 206F of the Sharwan Smith Center or by phone at (435) 865-8042. The Disability Resource Center determines eligibility for and authorizes the provision of services.

If your instructor requires attendance, you may need to seek an ADA accommodation to request an exception to this attendance policy. Please contact the Disability Resource Center to determine what, if any, ADA accommodations are reasonable and appropriate.

Academic Credit

According to the federal definition of a Carnegie credit hour: A credit hour of work is the equivalent of approximately 60 minutes of class time or independent study work. A minimum of 45 hours of work by each student is required for each unit of credit. Credit is earned only when course requirements are met. One (1) credit hour is equivalent to 15 contact hours of lecture, discussion, testing, evaluation, or seminar, as well as 30 hours of student homework. An equivalent amount of work is expected for laboratory work, internships, practica, studio, and other academic work leading to the awarding of credit hours. Credit granted for individual courses, labs, or studio classes ranges from 0.5 to 15 credit hours per semester.

Academic Freedom

SUU is operated for the common good of the greater community it serves. The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition. Academic Freedom is the right of faculty to study, discuss, investigate, teach, and publish. Academic Freedom is essential to these purposes and applies to both teaching and research.

Academic Freedom in the realm of teaching is fundamental for the protection of the rights of the faculty member and of you, the student, with respect to the free pursuit of learning and discovery. Faculty members possess the right to full freedom in the classroom in discussing their subjects. They may present any controversial material relevant to their courses and their intended learning outcomes, but they shall take care not to introduce into their teaching controversial materials which have no relation to the subject being taught or the intended learning outcomes for the course.

As such, students enrolled in any course at SUU may encounter topics, perspectives, and ideas that are unfamiliar or controversial, with the educational intent of providing a meaningful learning environment that fosters your growth and development. These parameters related to Academic Freedom are included in SUU Policy 6.6.

Academic Misconduct

Scholastic honesty is expected of all students. Dishonesty will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent (see SUU Policy 6.33). You are expected to have read and understood the current SUU student conduct code (SUU Policy 11.2) regarding student responsibilities and rights, the intellectual property policy (SUU Policy 5.52), information about procedures, and what constitutes acceptable behavior.

Please Note: The use of websites or services that sell essays is a violation of these policies; likewise, the use of websites or services that provide answers to assignments, quizzes, or tests is also a violation of these policies. Regarding the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), you should check with your individual course instructor.

Emergency Management Statement

In case of an emergency, the University's Emergency Notification System (ENS) will be activated. Students are encouraged to maintain updated contact information using the link on the homepage of the mySUU portal. In addition, students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the Emergency Response Protocols posted in each classroom. Detailed information about the University's emergency management plan can be found at https://www.suu.edu/emergency.

HEOA Compliance Statement

For a full set of Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) compliance statements, please visit https://www.suu.edu/heoa. The sharing of copyrighted material through peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, except as provided under U.S. copyright law, is prohibited by law; additional information can be found at https://my.suu.edu/help/article/1096/heoa-compliance-plan.

You are also expected to comply with policies regarding intellectual property (SUU Policy 5.52) and copyright (SUU Policy 5.54).

Mandatory Reporting

University policy (SUU Policy 5.60) requires instructors to report disclosures received from students that indicate they have been subjected to sexual misconduct/harassment. The University defines sexual harassment consistent with Federal Regulations (34 C.F.R. Part 106, Subpart D) to include quid pro quo, hostile environment harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking. When students communicate this information to an instructor in-person, by email, or within writing assignments, the instructor will report that to the Title IX Coordinator to ensure students receive support from the Title IX Office. A reporting form is available at https://cm.maxient.com/reportingform.php?SouthernUtahUniv

Non-Discrimination Statement

SUU is committed to fostering an inclusive community of lifelong learners and believes our university's encompassing of different views, beliefs, and identities makes us stronger, more innovative, and better prepared for the global society.

SUU does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, sex (including sex discrimination and sexual harassment), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, ancestry, disability status, pregnancy, pregnancy-related conditions, genetic information, military status, veteran status, or other bases protected by applicable law in employment, treatment, admission, access to educational programs and activities, or other University benefits or services.

SUU strives to cultivate a campus environment that encourages freedom of expression from diverse viewpoints. We encourage all to dialogue within a spirit of respect, civility, and decency.

For additional information on non-discrimination, please see SUU Policy 5.27 and/or visit https://www.suu.edu/nondiscrimination.

Pregnancy

Students who are or become pregnant during this course may receive reasonable modifications to facilitate continued access and participation in the course. Pregnancy and related conditions are broadly defined to include pregnancy, childbirth, termination of pregnancy, lactation, related medical conditions, and recovery. To obtain reasonable modifications, please make a request to title9@suu.edu. To learn more visit: https://www.suu.edu/titleix/pregnancy.html.

Disclaimer Statement

Information contained in this syllabus, other than the grading, late assignments, makeup work, and attendance policies, may be subject to change with advance notice, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.

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