Legal Journalism

Overview

With the approval of this course, Canyon College joins only a handful of colleges and universities across America that offer a 3-semester hour course on Legal Journalism.  Accordingly, learners who enroll in this course will be among an elite few.  This course exposes learners to the best elements of the rapidly developing field of legal journalism.  Participants in the course do not merely study legal journalism as an academic subject, they will write multiple first-rate newspaper articles about the law.

This course will have weekly assignments accompanied by on-line research that are relevant to the topic of writing for the week.  Nearly each week, learners will turn in writing assignments, which verify that they have mastered the skills taught in the course.  Some assignments may take longer than others, depending in part on the learner’s background knowledge of the subject as well as the nature of the writing assignment.  The investigative article is designed to take two weeks to complete, and the others are tailored for completion within a week. Learners must keep up with the pace of the weekly assignments, or the volume of reading and writing assignments will soon overwhelm the learner and lead to his or her withdrawal.

Learners in this course should plan to read major newspapers and the Internet daily focusing on news stories about the law.

Course Description

What is legal journalism? Broadly speaking, it is the process of disseminating to the public and legal professionals the content of decisions by the nation’s courts as well as other matters affecting the law, e.g., new bills pending before Congress or the state legislatures.  The art of legal journalism, as distinguished from standard legal writing in textbooks, treatises, and law journals, entails packing a lot of information into a succinct format while making the article interesting to read.

People will want to read about the judiciary, because it remains largely a mystery to many Americans.  One purpose of legal journalism is to demystify court decisions and state them in simple terms anyone can understand.  The American justice system is one of the most powerful institutions in our society, and most citizens are involved in it (to various extents) at some stage of their lives.  Even those who are not directly involved in lawsuits nevertheless are frequently affected by the outcome of important cases in the area where they reside. 

Legal journalists not only tell the public stories about cases or new laws promulgated by the legislature, but they also explain how the system works.  Thus each article in legal journalism has a strong education component:  educating the public about the status of the law, educating lawyers about changes in the law.

Teaching this course is exciting, because our subject matter is largely uncharted waters in terms of academics.  This course has never previously been taught at most colleges, and no pedagogy exists for how to make someone a good legal journalist.  It is exciting to embark on a new field and simultaneously give learners new skills that will be valued by legal employers. 

This course is designated as an advanced-skills course, which means that (a) learners are expected to have superior writing skills upon entering the course, rather than use this course as a means to learn how to write; and (b) the course has little required readings but heavy reporting and writing requirements.  Learners will be asked to write a total of five 1,000-word articles, and one long 2,000-word article.  The writing load amounts to approximately one article per week with a couple weeks buffer when no writing assignment is due.  If that writing load proves to be too difficult for some students, the College’s academic policies allow for students to complete this course for credit but take longer than 8 weeks.

The status of professional legal journalism today is pretty poor, as reflected in the comparatively low circulation numbers for most of the nation’s legal newspapers.  Learners in the course will not duplicate the poor writing style of many legal newspapers today.  Instead, they will demonstrate a new more appealing style of legal journalism. This course will not explore sensationalism, which has plagued legal journalism for its entire 200-year history, and obsession with celebrity, in which crimes of the rich and famous, or unique crimes making their perpetrators instantly famous, dominate the news columns at the expense of more substantive reportage.

Most of the course will focus on civil law, because the body of civil law is four times as large as criminal law.  However, one of the seven 1,000-word articles must be on a criminal law topic.   Students who are interested in the environment will have an opportunity to write about environmental law.  Those interested in Web publishing can write on intellectual property issues and copyright.  Those who feel too much is spent on taxes might write on the trend for Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABORs) spreading across the states.  In short, the course will be tailored to each student to reinforce areas where he or she already has some knowledge or interest.  Foreign students will have one or more opportunities to write about court decisions in their home country.  However, all students will demonstrate mastery of the ability to digest cases from two separate circuits of the U.S. Courts of Appeals. 

Course Objectives

After completing this course, learners will

1.    Understand and be able to explain the basic policies and procedures of the U.S. court system. 

2.    Be able to write both weekly news stories and news-feature stories related to the law.

3.    Identify both the strengths and the weaknesses of legal journalism as it is currently practiced.

4.    Produce publishable work in two of the most advanced forms of legal journalism: investigative reporting on some issue in the law or the justice system, and narrative profile reporting on the persons at the heart of an important and interesting case.

 

5.    Obtain enhanced skills in the reporting and writing of public affairs.

6.    Show that the learner is now better able to

o        develop viable ideas for news stories and features;

o        carry out a reporting plan for news features;

o        conduct an efficient and productive search for documents relevant to articles he or she is reporting and writing, including public records, library databases, and other documents available online;

o        select quotations from other news sources to incorporate into the learner’s own article;

o        observe the physical and human dimensions of legal stories and write about those dimensions descriptively;

o        write with no errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar, or usage in a style that is enjoyable to read.

The professor will act as a newspaper editor for your submissions.  Interested learners can view samples of legal journalism articles at the website http://michaelguth.com/lawnews.htm

Most of the readings for this course will be supplied by the professor through e-mail attachments.  In general, these readings will be material on the latest court decisions for the past 3 months in some jurisdiction, or a series of articles related to some topic for investigative journalism.

Please note that this course, like reporting itself, requires careful time management. Learners must budget time for unexpected conflicts in their writing schedule so they will not miss deadlines. If they wait until two days before the due date to begin a story or project, they will find this course is highly stressful. Learners will be expected to keep up with the readings and produce stories of publishable quality. Therefore, they must schedule carefully and avoid procrastination, especially when there seems to be plenty of time.

Course Policies

On-Line Participation

Since this course is offered over the Internet, which allows students to participate at "any time, anywhere," it is important to plan your time carefully. Learners are expected to pace themselves to access assignments, prepare their work and necessary research, and submit assignments to the instructor by the established due dates.  Learners are expected to make use of local and Internet resources as well as materials sent by the professor.

Course Week and Due Dates

Generally, Monday is the first of the course week, and Sunday is the last day of the course week. The weekly assignments scheduled for completion during a class week should be turned in via e-mail by midnight on Sunday, determined by the individual learner’s time zone.

Communications with the Instructor

Because the instructor is teaching several classes over the Internet, all learners must always identify themselves as enrolled in Legal Journalism in the first few e-mail correspondence and any phone calls to the instructor.  Within a couple weeks the instructor will recognize by name any correspondence from students enrolled in Legal Journalism, and it will no longer be necessary to identify yourself with the course you are taking.

Late Assignment Penalties

I must receive weekly assignments no later than Sunday midnight (your time zone) of the week due. Students who anticipate that their schedule may cause assignments to be out of compliance are advised to contact instructor at least one week in advance, as an extension may be permitted with prior mutual agreement.  Instructor discretion regarding point penalties for any late work will be considered final.

Academic Honesty

Canyon College policies are in effect. All work must be your own. Presenting as one's own the words, ideas, or expression of another in any form is cheating through plagiarism, and will not be tolerated.

Grading

You will receive a grade for each of your six articles.  The grade on the investigative report will count for 25% of the grade, and the grades on the other individual articles to be averaged to form the remaining 75%. 

Reading and Assignments

Week 1 – Case Digest of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.  [The learner’s home circuit may be substituted for the Sixth Circuit.]

Approximately 30 news articles pertaining to recent decisions of the circuit as well as approximately 15 – 20 court decisions will be provided to the learner by the Instructor.  Alternatively, the learner is welcome to search for relevant news articles using Infotrac or another on-line database.  A 1000-word digest will be due at the end of the week.

Week 2 - The Eminent Domain Power (another state law issue may be substituted with prior agreement of the instructor)
Approximately 30 news articles pertaining to state and local government use and abuse of their eminent domain power will be provided to the learner by the Instructor.   A 1000-word digest will be due at the end of the week.   Note: this topic was recently featured on a segment on the CBS television show 60 Minutes with Mike Wallace reporting.

Week 3 – Investigative Report

The learner will formulate an investigative research topic and beginning collecting articles, which can be provided by the instructor as well.  No written assignment due this week.

Week 4 – Spotlight on Federal Law Issue
Approximately 30 news articles pertaining to a federal law issue will be provided to the learner by the Instructor.   A 1000-word digest will be due at the end of the week.  

Week 5 – Health Care Reforms and Pharmaceutical Pricing

Approximately 30 news articles pertaining to a health care law subtopic will be provided to the learner by the Instructor.   A 1000-word digest will be due at the end of the week.  

Week 6 – Investigative Report Due at the end of the week

Learners will use this week to work on their investigative report.

Week 7 – Revisions to Prior Articles
Following the maxim of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, “There is no such thing as good writing.  There is only good editing,” learners will use this week to complete revisions and corrections to the previous five assignments turned in for this course.

 
Week 8 – Digest of Cases from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit   (The D.C. or Second Circuit may be substituted for the Ninth Circuit).

Approximately 30 news articles pertaining to recent decisions of the circuit as well as approximately 15 – 20 court decisions will be provided to the learner by the Instructor.  Alternatively, the learner is welcome to search for relevant news articles using Infotrac or another on-line database.  A 1000-word digest will be due at the end of the week.

 
About the Professor:

Michael A. S. Guth, Ph.D., J.D., is a Managing Director at Risk Management Consulting, based in Oak Ridge, TN. His clients have included Tennessee Valley Authority, PG&E Energy Trading, Oklahoma Gas & Electric Energy Trading, General Electric Power Systems, Progress Energy, and the Petroleum Institute of Research Associates. He received his B.A. (economics) from Rice University, his M.S. (social science) from Caltech, and his Ph.D. (economics) from the Univ. of Tennessee, where he also received his law degree. He currently teaches on-line courses at the MBA level in Managerial Economics (focusing on employee and managerial incentives), Decision Analysis for Managers, and at the undergraduate level in Health Care Economics, Health Care Finance, and Comparative Politics. A complete list of more than twenty courses he has taught is shown at his web site, http://michaelguth.com/economist.htm.

He also practices law with an emphasis on energy law, health care law, and business transactions. See his site http://michaelguth.com/. He is currently researching ways to offer health care services more efficiently and at lower cost to consumers. From 1990 - 1992, Dr. Guth worked as an investment banker in London and Frankfurt for Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse First Boston. He lived in Germany during the reunification of East and West Germany. In the fall of 2004, Dr. Guth will continue his legal writings as Editor-in-Chief of a new legal newspaper for Tennessee, Tennessee Law Monthly, with a circulation of over 12,500.

Dr. Guth’s philosophy of life:
“When I was hungry, you gave me to eat. When I was thirsty, you gave me to drink.....Now enter into the home of my Father.”

Dr. Guth’s philosophy of on-line education:
"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -William Butler Yeats

(thanks to Kerry Prendergast, Thomas Edison State College, for showing me this quote).

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