This unit introduces students to professional ethics and the media. Students will evaluate the media's fourth-estate role and its political agency in a commercial environment. Legislation, industry codes of practice and journalistic ethics will be analysed. Investigative reporting will be examined with reference to Watergate and investigative reporting's mythical 'golden age'. The interrelationship between PR, media liaison units and journalism will be explored. Tabloid journalism will be analysed with reference to economic and ethical concerns. The tension between the media's idealistic fourth-estate image and its professional, commercial and public interests is the unit's unifying theme. -- Course Website
