When I registered for this class, I thought it would be a simple ethics class. I believed that ethics was a black and white concept understood by everyone. This class allowed me to see that although some topics are pretty cut and dry, there are a few others that allow some room for discussion. The two most important ethical lessons I learned in this course were to trust my judgment in regards to ethical decisions and to never fabricate any facts. These are two ethical decisions that not only apply to journalism, but can also be applied to other areas of life. In regards to making sound, ethical decisions, I learned that there might be a structured set of rules one can follow, but not every case falls under these rules. Some rules may apply to some cases yet not to others. It is important to look at the case as a whole and make a decision from there and to also stick with said decision. Fabricating facts is another ethical decision that can be applied in other professions. In research studies, no one would dare make up statistics or facts just to back up their hypothesis. The same can be applied for journalism. Fabricating facts is never appropriate in any profession, as it can be very costly.
Even though I do not plan to work in the journalism field, I feel the News Media Ethics class still prepared me for work after graduation. Yes, the lessons in this course focus on journalism, but they can also be applied to any part of life. Every occupation requires someone to make an ethical decision and this class allowed me to see that although making a decision for one case may be easy, the same decision may not apply to another case or situation.
Overall, I very much enjoyed taking this class. I learned a lot of information over the semester that will help me in the future. I like hearing about other students’ point of views on certain topics during discussion and I also enjoyed the different case studies that we reviewed. The only downside was that the lectures tend to become dry after some time, which tends to happen in the longer classes. Using video clips helped liven the lecture and discussion as well, so implementing them in future courses would prove to be helpful. I would definitely recommend this course to a fellow student.