1. Your team will be required to do a 10-minute oral presentation in class on the day assigned. The goal is to teach your classmates what you have learned about your area of the law. There will be final exam questions based on these presentations.
2. Prepare a 1-2 page handout for each person in the class. The handout should outline your area of media law and your cases, and it should help the class understand your presentation and give them some help on exam questions. Make 50 photocopies of your handout.
3. You will discuss how you want to do your presentation during an in-class meeting and your reporter will send me your idea so that I can approve it. If needed, I'll give you ideas on how to change your presentation to fit the assignment.
4. The oral presentation should reveal that ALL team members know the MLR field of law.
5. Here is a straightforward warning: DO NOT merely take turns talking about your own case. That is not what I'm looking for.
56 Creativity is encouraged. Here are a few ideas I had about formats for your oral presentation. You can use one of these or come up with your own. I will see your proposal to let you know if your idea will work.
SPECIAL RULES ABOUT VIDEO
DO NOT do your presentation on video if you can do the same thing in class. I won't let you do a video to avoid "public speaking." If you want to do your presentation completely on video or partially on video, be sure you discuss it with me and be sure we have a solid understanding about what the video will be. If it is completely on video, it must be done in a professional TV studio, with separate microphones for all participants. Camera angles have to be varied -- do not just set up a camera and do your presentation in front of it. If you're doing video, make it a TV show. If using pieces of video, the requirements are more lax, but, again, don't plan on getting across any information on video unless the person speaking is individually miked. ASK ME about your video presentation while you are in your class meeting.
Possible Oral Presentation Formats:
A. Moot Court. Argue the problem you are researching (or a similar one). For instance, if your team report was about cigarette advertising, one side could argue any regulation is unconstitutional; the other side could argue that the Central Hudson test permits certain restrictions on advertising. (Note that I referred to the legal test used to determine the constitutionality of restrictions on advertising.) With five team members, two members could represent each side, arguing approximately 3 minutes each, with the fifth member introducing the problem. Or it could be a one-on-one debate with three judges interrupting and asking questions.
B. Courtroom Scene: Turn your problem (or a similar one) into a courtroom scene. This scene would be at the trial level. Put one of your team members on the witness stand, two others as opposing attorneys, one as the judge, and the final team member as the one who introduces the problem. For instance, if your report had to do with public figures, you could cross-examine a community activist to see if her activities fit into the limited-purpose public figure model.
C. Newsroom Scene: Turn your problem (or a similar one) into a newsroom scene. The setting is a TV or newspaper newsroom. A reporter comes in with a story idea or incident that happened in the field. The participants could be the reporter, a photographer, an editor or news director, the owner of the paper or station, and the company lawyer. Your presentation would these people discussing a sticky legal situation that had come up on the beat.
D. Confrontation TV: A TV format like Jerry Springer or the McLaughlin Group would give you an opportunity to present several scenarios and arguments
E..Performance Art: Music video, poetry slam, Pictionary, living sculptures? Use your imagination, but be sure you can work in the law. (To be honest, I can't think of how you'd do Pictionary or living sculputures, but I wouldn't put it past students to think of a way!)
DO NOT DO "JEOPARDY" OR ANY QUESTION-ANSWER GAMES. It's nearly impossible to teach anything with such a format. If you think you have a way to do a game show and make it work, I'll hear your suggestions, but in general, don't do it.