News Media Ethics (COMM409) is an essential class for journalism students to take before they graduate. Throughout the spring semester, many ethical lessons were taught by Dr. Z, but there are two specific lessons that seem most important to me.
The first most important ethical lesson I learned about in this course is that all of the journalism ethics in print and broadcast journalism still apply to Web journalism. Web journalism is a growing media platform, and where most individuals (that I know at least) get their news. One of the most important ethical lessons learned during the Web journalism lecture was that verification is still required for the Web. Dr. Z noted that it is a temptation for a journalist to put their first draft on the Web to break the story first. The problem with this however, is that there may still be mistakes, misleading the audience. Dr. Z taught us that this can affect a writer’s and their publication’s credibility.
The second most important ethical lesson I learned during this class was the ethical decision as to be an observer or a participant if a situation occurs where one would have to choose to be either one or the other. One of the most impacting slides during this lecture was the topic on being professional vs. being human. During this section of the lecture, Dr. Z taught the class that journalists have moral duties as being human beings, but they also have to be professional. He noted that sometimes these duties clash, like during the covering of Hurricane Katrina, but situations like that is when being a professional and human is necessary and ethically the right thing to do.
Moving on, this course without a doubt will impact my (hopefully) future career as a journalist. Without this course, my background in journalism ethics would be nonexistent. Employers look for people to hire who have a background in ethics and know the difference between right and wrong, so taking this class would be helpful in finding a job. Also, if I am working in the fiend of journalism one day and encounter a situation where I need to make an ethical decision, I would look back into what I learned in COMM409 to find an answer for what I should do.
All in all, I was pleased with the material in this course. I also enjoyed how laid back and conversational Dr. Z was during his lectures. He constantly told the class that if we needed help to talk to him about the class or an assignment, to stop by in his office. The only thing I would note that needs change is the fact that the material read in the book isn’t discussed in class. I understand that the lecture and book are separate parts of the course, but it would have been helpful for me if the readings were connected to the lectures and it was presented clearly. Other than that, there is nothing else I would suggest.