A course where surfing the Internet and blogging about Hollywood is not only encouraged but required? For Southwestern students in Entertainment Law and Web 2.0, that is the way to earn academic credit while honing both tech skills and getting a pulse on legal issues in the world of entertainment.
Through this unique, new eight-week mini-term course and follow up semester-long course, Adjunct Professor Craig Matsuda and Professor Michael Scott guide students in creating Biedermanblog.com, a Web site where participating students research, write and post on matters related to entertainment law and serve as editors.
“Many Southwestern students closely follow the latest legal developments in the entertainment industry,” Scott said. “The Biederman Blog lets them share their developing expertise in entertainment law with other law students, entertainment industry professionals, and everyone who is fascinated by Hollywood.”
In the course, Professors Matsuda and Scott have concentrated on a few key elements: the vast changes in the dissemination of information due to technological advances and the burgeoning online world; how social media and tech advances have evolved into Web 2.0 and an examination of blogs and best practices for blogging about a topic like entertainment law.
“It requires students to think critically, research and write more and to gain experience in how their work gets received in the real world,” said Matsuda, whose extensive journalism background includes two decades as a senior assignment editor at the Los Angeles Times. “Bloggers, can, for example scour a world full of information, point others to neat things they find and discuss and comment on these — and to do this in an absolutely brief, concise and defined way, adding one more voice to the already many and varied in the online legal community.”
