After an organizational-wide data breach, the legal department required the communication team review Communication Law and Media Ethics, specifically addressing privacy and personal information. This 30-slide deck VIDEO demonstrates complex slides with animations:
SLIDE 1: Title
SLIDE 2: Agenda
Milestone One: The role of ethics in communication
SLIDE 3: This year’s ethics and legal compliance training focuses on the best practices for observing ethical and legal compliance. As experienced communicators, ethical and legal choices are a daily responsibility, and reviewing the basics and best practices supports the organizational objective to always make ethical and legal choices. The task is to learn how to apply ethics and law to daily decisions. By taking the time to discuss the reasons behind ethics, the law, and compliance issues, communication teams support one another by aligning their values with their responsibilities.
SLIDE 4: Ethics and laws guide communication specialists toward effective and responsible choices in production and service to customers or the public. Having comprehensive legal policies and ethics maintains professional integrity (Ekstrand,2023). Communication law evolves through precedent and common law, and today’s interpretation of the law may not be the same tomorrow or years from now. However, the law ensures justice is served, whether one is considering the rights of individuals or those of an organization, balancing the interests of the individual with the greater good. In doing so, the courts and organizations foster public trust.
SLIDE 5: Communication laws safeguard the interests of the public and those of speakers, creators, individuals, and organizations. Through laws, governments manage infrastructure, including communication methods and institutional systems. Additionally, the law regulates content and protects the marketplace of ideas (Ekstrand, 2023). While personal information laws are evolving, it is important to establish best practices.
SLIDE 6: Technological shifts have accelerated societal changes, influencing communication law and ethics. The digital, online community encourages international communication, but with the extensive changes, people are still catching up with the status quo. With increased connectivity, people have concerns about privacy and expect organizations to be transparent.
SLIDE 7: Laws, regulations, and policies influence communication by creating boundaries, rules, and expectations for how people share information. With the law and solid ethics, individuals and organizations can be accountable for their decisions. Through the lens of communication laws and ethics, speakers and creators produce effective and responsible content and relationships.
SLIDE 8: Privacy is the top challenge for PI storage. Failing security measures, data breaches, insider threats, physical theft, or loss compromise consumers’ PI, violating a user’s privacy rights. Following the example set forth in the General Data Protection Regulation (2025), communication teams should abide by the following seven requirements for best practices:
- Lawfulness, fairness, and transparency are requirements for PI collection.
- Purpose limitations govern the legitimate application of PI.
- Data minimalization removes unnecessary PI from data.
- Accuracy is the responsibility of the business collecting the data.
- Stored PI has a shelf life and time restrictions.
- Data management requires integrity and secure confidentiality.
- Accountability might be the most important regulation, adding penalties for privacy violations.
Teams must store consumer data ethically and comply with laws. Customer information is very valuable, so respecting a consumer’s privacy is essential for a meaningful consumer relationship (Wallace, 2014). Personal data transforms users into actionable insights, but only when collected and maintained responsibly.
Milestone Two: Key laws, policies, and regulations
SLIDE 9: Now, we investigate four different common communication issues, empowering our professional choices. We will review the parameters of free speech, what it is, and what it is not. We will only discuss copyright today. Subsequent presentations will address IP issues, like trademarks and patents. Here, we will look at the rights of publicity and comparable state laws. Fourth, we will cover obscenity and indecency and how they apply to our work. and its parallels with privacy rights.
Making ethical professional choices begins with understanding the purpose of the different laws. We will identify defining cases, interpretation of the law, and the jurisdictions that oversee compliance. Most importantly today, we will consider the ethical codes of conduct respecting the rights of individuals, organizations, and how to benefit society.
SLIDE 10: Within the United States, free speech is a balance between free expression and social benefit. Free speech protects the marketplace of ideas while enabling people to hear, scrutinize, and debate all viewpoints — even unpopular ones (Ekstrand et al., 2023). The scholar Alexander Meiklejohn asserts that the priority of the First Amendment is to protect political speech and press freedom, ensuring democracy. Even “fake news” is a form of free speech. Based upon principles of the scientific method, the marketplace of ideas dictates that truth will prevail through repeated experimentation.
SLIDE 11: Schenck v. United States (1919) introduced the “clear and present danger” test regulating speech opposed to the government’s compelling interests. However, there are other times when governments can restrict speech with intermediate scrutiny, including content-neutral speech, addressing time, place, and manner laws, or situations deemed quasi-suspect to prevent institutionalized discrimination. The US has a rich history, and although it has some of the most liberal freedoms of speech and of the press, it still has its legal limitations.
SLIDE 12: There are specific instances when the First Amendment does not protect free speech. If the speech incites imminent lawless action, if it can be viewed as a true threat, intimidation, or if it takes the form of fighting words, the government may restrict the message. Speech that is integral to criminal activity, obscenity, child sexual abuse material, and defamation is all unprotected speech. Commercial speech is a special exception, regulated by the Lanham Act’s “truth in advertising” by the FTC.
SLIDE 13: Speaking of defamation, libel, and liability are often mistaken for each other. Libel is publishing false facts about a person or organization. Liability is the legal responsibility, as determined by tort law.
SLIDE 14: The utilitarian purpose of Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, the copyright law is to promote the progress of science and the useful arts for the ultimate benefit of the public. It provides incentives, rewards, and induces creators. For a limited time, creators receive exclusive rights and a temporary monopoly (Ekstrand et al., 2023). Copyright laws provide creators with mechanisms to protect their intellectual property, giving them the power to license their work.
SLIDE 15: The law limits copyrights to enrich the public domain, in time and in fair use. It is in society’s best interest to encourage creators by regulating copies and licensing. Copyrights enter the public domain nearly a century after the creation of the work. Of course, fair use allows the public to use copyrighted works if the new work created considers four factors (Ekstrand, 2023). Creations that use copyrighted works for commercial purposes must demonstrate transformative use. Copyrights depend on whether the creation is factual or creative, and if it is published or not. The amount of the copyright used, in quantity or importance, can determine if the use infringes on the holder’s copyright. Fair use is permissible if the portions of a creator’s copyright do not negatively affect the potential market or value of the copyrighted work.
SLIDE 16: Performers and creators make their living from their performances or creations, but they also benefit from their image, identity, and personal brand. Their work and their likeness are valuable elements of their brand identity. Whether creators are musicians, athletes, tattoo artists, celebrities, or private citizens, they hold their rights of publicity.
SLIDE 17: There are several exceptions to the rights of publicity when using a person’s or an organization’s likeness. If the creative expression includes the publicity of another, it must be newsworthy or the likeness must be transformative; it must be of incidental use; and it could be used as part of a parody or satire. Finally, the titles of creative works carry extra protections to prevent public confusion.
SLIDE 18: Public standards defining acceptable sexually explicit speech balance the expression of sexual expression with social and moral integrity and prevent antisocial behavior. Specific regulations limit a minor’s exposure to explicit material, also known as indecent exposure. Miller v. California (1973) developed the Miller test, separating sexual expression from obscenity. If the material is designed to cause lustfulness but would be offensive to the controlling majority, or lacks value in contribution to the marketplace of ideas, then it is obscene and of no social value.
SLIDE 19: Indecency laws regulate public broadcast media. It is a very narrow content-based time, place, and manner restriction on speech, enduring strict scrutiny for its compelling government interest. Restrictions shield minors from sexually explicit messaging and support parents’ objectives for healthy habits. Indecency regulates speech, but obscenity is always unprotected. Safe harbor is the statutorily defined block of hours during the late night and early morning when broadcast media are permitted to air content considered indecent without facing sanctions from the FCC.
Milestone Three: Communication best practices
SLIDE 20: Let’s wrap up this meeting with seven effective best practices for legal communication and ethical media, by using some quick examples, choices, and their reasons.
SLIDE 21: The “best” best practice is to prioritize accuracy and truth. When conducting a survey, do your research ahead of time so you will have insightful questions, and record the responses accurately. I am guessing nearly every communication association has an ethical code pertaining to honesty, accurate, and objective information. For quick reference, visit the Public Relations Society of America’ site, the International Association of Business Communicators, or the Arthur W. Page Society’s site for reference to honesty and ethical behavior. As communicators, we are the channel and the message. Sometimes we are subjective, but there is no place for dishonesty and manipulation. Make honesty your foundation, because it is not enough to “fake it until you make it.” Every day, every one of your communications should be honest, accurate, and verifiable. Even subjective content requires honesty in its presentation. It is your responsibility to record and report accurately. FTC v. Colgate-Palmolive Co. (1965) set the standards for deception in proof and the legal requirement for substantiation. Supported by the Lanham Act, commercial dishonesty is illegal.
SLIDE 22: Use legal strategies and tactics for compliance. When we are creating campaigns, building a framework of possible legal and ethical issues at the start can help guide you through your SMART goals. Managing your projects requires you to use a wide perspective, focus on details, then pull back again to pull it all together (Wilcox et al., 2022). Map your legal challenges and designate compliance solutions as you develop your campaign. This zoom-in/zoom-out approach works throughout industries and professions. Systems are complex, and moving between levels requires forethought. Back to FTC v. Colgate-Palmolive (1965), you must substantiate any claims, your sources to your claims must be transparent, and you must disclose possible harms that may occur.
SLIDE 23: Minimize harm through integrity and protect privacy with confidentiality. To review, data leaks, sharing private information, and maintaining confidentiality are everyone’s responsibility (Ekstrand et al., 2023). You may be covered under the corporate umbrella as a work for hire, but you may not. The law protects privacy through statutory compliance (data breach notification laws), regulatory enforcement (FTC/HIPPA), and the evolving privacy litigation, which could subject you to a privacy tort. Keep information confidential and use every ethical oversight to ensure sensitive information produces the least amount of harm, if any. TransUnion v. Ramirez (2021) demonstrates the limitations of the law when it comes to data breaches, but the ethical considerations are much more damaging to a brand.
SLIDE 24: Ensure transparency, clearly distinguish content, and post disclosures when creating a website brand extension, specifically coding the tracking cookies disclosure on the product’s home page. Again, truth and transparency in commercial speech are paramount. The FTC protects consumers from dishonest claims, a form of unprotected speech (Ekstrand et al. 2023). Sometimes, disclosures and transparency can build brand equity. This ties back to the first best practice, honesty. FTC v. POM Wonderful LLC (2015) found the defendant liable for deception by omission and in source, requiring complete disclosure and discoverable evidence. The four Ps: prominence, presentation, placement, and proximity, help communicators design legal disclosures.
SLIDE 25: Act independently and remain accountable. When other professionals act unethically or even illegally, you must maintain your integrity. It is your responsibility to remain independent and accountable, and your livelihood depends on it. The FTC and many professional associations’ codes of conduct expect members to think and speak for themselves. Who will be held accountable? Work with an organization that aligns with your own values – don’t compromise. FTC v. American Home Products (1981-1982) was a lengthy legal battle over misleading advertising. Significantly, the advertiser was held liable for the claims.
SLIDE 26: Maintain clarity and be concise in messaging when tailoring brand messages between platforms requires consistency. Clarity and conciseness will build brand credibility and professional dependability. Echo messages and reflect sentiments throughout organizational communication. Holding copyrights and trademarks requires continuous use in commerce and evolution, as seen in the tacking doctrine in Hana Financial, Inc. v. Hana Bank (2025).
SLIDE 27: Improve communication, sustainability active listening feedback. Think of a time when a customer loves their order, or when the manager needs corrections to a report, or when you sent an email and never heard back. As professional communicators, we are only as good as our feedback. The legal tension between an organization’s right to protect its reputation and a consumer’s First Amendment right to express opinions is a lesson we can all grow from, because we all want the right to contribute at times. Don’t shoot down the feedback and don’t defend. Take the critique and find a way to improve through the reaction or suggestion. Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co. (1990) demonstrates the extent of subjective expressive speech. However, organizations are protected from libel.
SLIDE 28: This does not have to be difficult. Just make ethical and legal choices to achieve the results you want. It’s that simple. We’re here to help and direct you to the information you need.
References
Ekstrand, V. S., Carlson, C. R., Coyle, E., Ross, S. D., Reynolds, A. (2023, March 24). Trager′s the law of journalism and mass communication, 8th edition. VitalSource Bookshelf version.
General Data Protection Regulation. (2025). What is GDPR, the EU’s new data protection law? https://gdpr.eu/what-is-gdpr/#:~:text=Purpose%20limitation%20%E2%80%94%20You%20must%20process,accurate%20and%20up%20to%20date.
Wallace, M. (2014, September). The ethics of collecting data [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/marie_wallace_the_ethics_of_collecting_data
Wilcox, D. L., Reber, B. H., Shin, J. & Cameron, G. T. (2022, October 31). Public relations: Strategies and tactics. Pearson. https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780137847624
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