The Analysis of Legal Cases in News Reporting and Writing

Abstract

In many journalism programs, reporting students are introduced to the judicial process through their news coverage of state trial courts. These students report on court activities and processes in a convenient forum for lively and interesting material. Their exposure to the appellate court process in many cases is limited to reading synthesized court rulings in media law textbooks as part of a multi-topic survey course on First Amendment issues. As a result, students sometimes miss the opportunity to study judicial thought first-hand through reading appellate court judges' opinions and using them to hone news reporting and writing skills.After a brief review of the relevant literature, this article presents the reasons for teaching journalism students how to read and analyze legal cases. Next, it proposes guidelines for exposing students to this kind of study. Finally, it suggests how this instruction might be incorporated into the course curriculum.Literature reviewSome variation of case analysis has been used effectively in communications courses (Lule, 1990; Hanks, 1975) and with undergraduates in other disciplines (Henszey & Myers, 1977; Blackburn & Niedzwiedz, 1981). Communications educators, in examining ways to make the media law course more meaningful to students, have reported successes in studying appellate court cases. Lule's media studies method explored, among other things, the relationship among the media, social life, and the law. He replaced the traditional textbook with a choice of readings that touched on legal issues but cited little case law. Through lecture and discussion, he gave students the relevant laws. Consequently, students were led to observe the ways in which the law has affected the daily lives of communications professionals. According to Lule:Without the case summaries in the textbooks, students had to find their way to the law library and read essential decisions as handed down by the courts. Unfailingly, they got caught up in the arguments, the tortured beauty of legal language and logic, the ferocity of defense. In the give and take among the justices, students truly saw the law as a conflict of wishes, a battle of interpretations.Another mass communication scholar, Hanks, conducted a successful experiment using legal cases as a teaching tool. He issued students the facts of U.S. Supreme Court cases and instructed them to decide the cases as if they were justices, stating each position and justifying it to their peers. Following each exercise, he summarized the background of particular cases and the ultimate decisions by the High Court. It proved effective at stimulating classroom interaction.Most journalism programs require students to take a media law course, but the tendency toward larger enrollments in such theory-based courses reduces the likelihood of students' exposure to legal case analysis. The infusion of this skill in reporting classes, with practical application to the writing process, ensures a better prepared student and is consistent with the increasing importance placed on teaching and applying other disciplines in journalism (Liebler & Bendix, 1993; Horvath-Neimeyer, 1989).Justification for case studyProfessors have good cause to teach case-reading skills, and many students probably are interested in acquiring them. First, entry-level journalists could more effectively communicate judicial decisions to the masses if they could read and understand those court opinions for themselves. Many of the decisions made by state and federal courts at both trial and appellate court levels are issued in the form of opinions written by judges. These authors typically riddle their writings with jargon, legal tests, synopses of precedents, and analyses of parties' rights. To the untrained reader, the task of deciphering the valuable points could be daunting. If, however, students get the opportunity to experience case reading, they probably will be less intimidated by court opinions when they leave school, and they will be better prepared for the challenge of interpreting judicial pronouncements and procedures for the reading, listening, and viewing public. …