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This month in our Legal Aspects of Media course we learned quite a bit about the laws and regulations that affect communications and the media industry. It has been really helpful for me to better understand the concepts discussed in the course. Some of theses concepts I had a general familiarity with, like freedom of speech. But, through the course materials we took a closer look at how laws dealing with each concept relate directly to real-world situations. I think learning how to analyze a case study and pull critical information from the text has been a great practice. I can see this being valuable to me as someone who wants to cover environmental concerns and public policy regarding natural resources and wildlife. Understanding how to read through cases and court documents to pull out the necessary information to report on will be extremely beneficial to the efficacy of my work.

What was your favorite assignment in this course? Please explain.

My favorite assignment for this course was finalizing the article about an event I attended in the third week. As someone who loves the outdoors, especially when observing wildlife, I was thrilled to find an event close to my home led by the Audubon Society to look for birds in Malibu Creek State Park. I got to walk the trails, look for elusive animals, and take photos of the species we found. This is pretty much what I do in my spare time anyway. So, to have a great excuse to turn the activity into an assignment was perfect. We had fantastic weather and saw some interesting birds. I was able to get some awesome photos and incorporate them into my article. It was a fun experience.

Of the course topics covered this month, which one(s) do you think will be most helpful to you as a communications professional?

I believe learning how to fill out a FOIA request properly will be helpful to me. A lot of times, environmental issues and concerns are directly related to public policy and government action or inaction. Being able to pull the essential documents and build a case or story around them should be extremely helpful for my reporting.

How will the knowledge you acquired this month prepare you to handle potential legal issues in the communications industry?

I am definitely more aware of where the boundaries are regarding free speech, copyrights, defamation, and other topics we learned this month. I feel much better prepared to effectively produce content without violating those boundaries, and if someone does come after me with a lawsuit, I feel well equipped to defend my work if necessary. I know how important it is to comply with these laws. There are steep consequences for those who break them. Freedom of speech and press is an incredibly powerful right we have in the United States. So, fully knowing how the protections work and how they apply specifically to my work is imperative.

The Marshall Tucker Band made a song called Fly Eagle Fly. I included it with this post because it’s essentially a conservation ballad. It’s all about how the world would be a really sad place without wildlife and natural lands. It’s like an anthem for the work I want to do with my photography and reporting – show the world how amazing nature is and why we need to protect it.

This month was a great experience. I finally got to put my boots on the ground, as the expression goes (or in the mud in this case). It felt awesome to go out into the field and make contact with people – experts who gave me tons of information I was able to couple with my photographs. The knowledge they have brings context and substance to the photos I’ve loved taking for so many years now. I’m beginning to understand how to bring the stories to life and address issues I want people to be aware of. The conservation component of my goal of becoming a wildlife and conservation photojournalist is taking shape. I feel my expectations for this course were pretty accurate. One thing I initially posted as an expectation for the course that I did not do, but plan to very soon, is take an existing story and format it for a variety of platforms. I plan to take one of the stories I composed this month and either condense it or expand it for various outlets like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and a newsletter. Each one has a unique style to match in order to tell an effective story. This is a great time and opportunity for me to practice this technique which will allow me to reach a broader audience. I actually loved the worksheets we used to outline our assignments. They were super helpful in organizing my thoughts and resources to assemble a good story. I’m actually planning on saving many of those templates and using them as I go forward in working on other school projects and stories I’ll be composing for my professional life. I feel I have a really good handle on how to best proceed and put together compelling stories that are timely and newsworthy after going through this course.