Can you say that?

Media law and ethics is my favourite lecture this semester, probably of all my degree. It’s not because I learn the most, have a large group of friends in the course, or find the content really engaging. It’s because the lecturer pushes the boundaries every week. Not necessarily my learning boundaries, but boundaries of what I think a lecturer is allowed to do. One week the topic was privacy and he told us that if we did not think privacy was an issue we should all come to uni naked. He then pointed at one student and asked her why she was wearing clothes to which she replied because ‘it was the descent thing to do’, he then said ‘well I wish you were more like that girl there with the split in her skirt, at least we can all see part of her leg’. Some people in the audience laughed, others looked pretty awkward.

The topic for the last lecture that we had was on freedom of speech. The lecturer asked whether or not we were happy with anyone being able to post anything at all on the internet. No gave much of a response, so he typed ‘Holocaust denier’ into google, then ‘how to make a bomb’ and then ‘hardcore sex’. By now he had peoples attention and he asked ‘so do you think having content like this so readily available is harmful?’, someone up the back of the room yelled ‘that’s debatable’, to which the lecturer instantly responded ‘that’s masturbate-able did you say?’. It’s refreshing to know that lecturers can get away with this sort of stuff as it adds much needed colour to the educational experience.