COMM 101
Freedom of Communication
Description: Lecture, four hours. Analysis of legal, political, and philosophical issues entailed in rights of free expression, access to audience, and access to information. Study of court decisions governing freedom of communication in U.S. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
I absolutely loved this class. It is, as she will tell you on the first day, run like a first year law course. Your course reader is simply copies of the full legal cases. It takes you a couple of weeks of reading it slowly and with great confusion before you start to "speak the language". After that, it's easy to know what you're looking for and, needles to say, they go much more quickly. That being said, each case with either produce a test to use as precedence in similar cases or it will exemplify one of these tests in action. You should know these tests backwards and forwards. The only two things controlling your grade are the midterm and final, where you will be given 5 or 6 essays (3 long, and the rest short) to write on hypothetical issues. BE LOGICAL IN APPROACHING THESE. Many will claim that the TAs were unfairly biased against certain opinions, but that is not the case at all. You'll want to go very carefully through each step, considering the facts before you, making only inferences that you can support (e.g. do not shoot out some discriminatory statement about the group of people involved and then expect them to just accept it without further explanation). Lastly, in your preparing for these exams, especially for the final, make sure that you can come down on one side of the issue. I struggled in arguing the cases because, when I got to the end, I could not decide whether I thought that the plaintiff was in the right or not in suing. While other classes may be very black-and-white in their testing, this course is all about that gray area, so you should befriend it early. However, the material was super interesting and Professor Hobbs was very willing to answer questions that expanded beyond the material of her class.
I absolutely loved this class. It is, as she will tell you on the first day, run like a first year law course. Your course reader is simply copies of the full legal cases. It takes you a couple of weeks of reading it slowly and with great confusion before you start to "speak the language". After that, it's easy to know what you're looking for and, needles to say, they go much more quickly. That being said, each case with either produce a test to use as precedence in similar cases or it will exemplify one of these tests in action. You should know these tests backwards and forwards. The only two things controlling your grade are the midterm and final, where you will be given 5 or 6 essays (3 long, and the rest short) to write on hypothetical issues. BE LOGICAL IN APPROACHING THESE. Many will claim that the TAs were unfairly biased against certain opinions, but that is not the case at all. You'll want to go very carefully through each step, considering the facts before you, making only inferences that you can support (e.g. do not shoot out some discriminatory statement about the group of people involved and then expect them to just accept it without further explanation). Lastly, in your preparing for these exams, especially for the final, make sure that you can come down on one side of the issue. I struggled in arguing the cases because, when I got to the end, I could not decide whether I thought that the plaintiff was in the right or not in suing. While other classes may be very black-and-white in their testing, this course is all about that gray area, so you should befriend it early. However, the material was super interesting and Professor Hobbs was very willing to answer questions that expanded beyond the material of her class.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2018 - This course is a must-take for students with their eyes set on law school, but make sure you plan your quarter around its' workload. We read/covered dozens of cases, each of which required reading and parsing through many pages of dense legal writing. The midterm and final are very tough, as he asks you to apply lengthy rules/precedents set in each case to analyze three provided fact patterns, each in their own blue book. The midterm and final take up the entire class period (nearly three hours) and I filled all three of my books both times. Even though it was a lot, it was all worth it in the end. It's a lot of work, but the course is so interesting and enriching. This class was one of the few times I felt like I really accomplished something at the end of a quarter. If you can handle the workload, don't be deterred from taking this one-of-a-kind comm class at UCLA!
Fall 2018 - This course is a must-take for students with their eyes set on law school, but make sure you plan your quarter around its' workload. We read/covered dozens of cases, each of which required reading and parsing through many pages of dense legal writing. The midterm and final are very tough, as he asks you to apply lengthy rules/precedents set in each case to analyze three provided fact patterns, each in their own blue book. The midterm and final take up the entire class period (nearly three hours) and I filled all three of my books both times. Even though it was a lot, it was all worth it in the end. It's a lot of work, but the course is so interesting and enriching. This class was one of the few times I felt like I really accomplished something at the end of a quarter. If you can handle the workload, don't be deterred from taking this one-of-a-kind comm class at UCLA!
Most Helpful Review
I took this class to explore potential interest in the major. The first day of class, the professor, Dawn Ross, warned all the first-year students that they might be in over their heads in taking this class, and that it was aimed towards upperclassmen. I have to disagree with this. I feel that the class, though full of content, was very easy to follow due to the great communication skills of Prof. Ross. She does a phenomenal job of clearing up any detail that might not be completely lucid in her lectures, and she makes the class both interesting and enjoyable. As if that was not enough, the TAs for the class also did a thorough job of reviewing every necessary fact for the tests. By going to class and sections, it should not even be a remote challenge to do well on the tests. I had a great time in this class, and I highly recommend it to anyone who thinks that they might look upon Communications as a prospective major-- this class will definitely draw you in.
I took this class to explore potential interest in the major. The first day of class, the professor, Dawn Ross, warned all the first-year students that they might be in over their heads in taking this class, and that it was aimed towards upperclassmen. I have to disagree with this. I feel that the class, though full of content, was very easy to follow due to the great communication skills of Prof. Ross. She does a phenomenal job of clearing up any detail that might not be completely lucid in her lectures, and she makes the class both interesting and enjoyable. As if that was not enough, the TAs for the class also did a thorough job of reviewing every necessary fact for the tests. By going to class and sections, it should not even be a remote challenge to do well on the tests. I had a great time in this class, and I highly recommend it to anyone who thinks that they might look upon Communications as a prospective major-- this class will definitely draw you in.
Most Helpful Review
TAKE THIS CLASS! Prof. Ross is caring, funny, and kept a three hour class at nine in the morning interesting... how many professors can actually do that? Her lectures are interesting and she always makes the class laugh. The tests are kinda tricky but if you know the stuff, its not bad. She is by far the best professor I have had at this school, and I know many who agree. If you don't take her class you're missing out.
TAKE THIS CLASS! Prof. Ross is caring, funny, and kept a three hour class at nine in the morning interesting... how many professors can actually do that? Her lectures are interesting and she always makes the class laugh. The tests are kinda tricky but if you know the stuff, its not bad. She is by far the best professor I have had at this school, and I know many who agree. If you don't take her class you're missing out.
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Most Helpful Review
Valle defintely has a lot to offer for this course. He is very interested in the material, and that shows in the way he lectures. The only problem is that sometimes he can get a little off track and carried away. Make sure you get Mike as your TA, and he'll make sure you know the stuff thats important.
Valle defintely has a lot to offer for this course. He is very interested in the material, and that shows in the way he lectures. The only problem is that sometimes he can get a little off track and carried away. Make sure you get Mike as your TA, and he'll make sure you know the stuff thats important.
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