Before coming to University Park, I thought of Media Law and Media Ethics as the most boring classes I would have to take. I was wrong. Law and ethics, ethics especially, proved to be two of the most important classes I’ve had to take, and they were also the most interesting. In ethics, I learned about situations that sounded a bit unbelievable and I learned about the ways journalists and news publications handled them. I learned through examples how to handle things in what I, as a decision maker, would consider to be the best ways possible.
Two lessons that I think will impact my career the most are the lessons on plagiarism & fabrication and ethical decision making in photojournalism.
Plagiarism and fabrication are two ethical dilemmas that I have felt strongly about since I started my journalism career in the 10th grade. I remember my teacher showing my class the Shattered Glass movie and that was my first look into the scary side of journalism. Seeing that movie again six years later only made me realize how much I detest fabricating news stories. It is the complete opposite of what journalism is. My feelings on plagiarism are a step under my feelings on fabrication, only because I find it annoying dealing with the idea of self-plagiarism, but it isn’t something I am worried about for myself. I’m sure I will be ok as long as I follow the rules.
The lecture on EDM in photojournalism stuck out to me the most because I have always had an interest in photography and that lesson helped me realize that there are rules to follow for photojournalism as well. I’ll admit that some of the photos were a bit graphic and more than I could handle, but it goes to show that there isn’t always a peachy side to journalism, whether it is print, broadcast or photo. My heart fell a little bit when the lecturer revealed to us that he was the photographer who took each photo displayed in the presentation. It just showed me that photojournalists are real people who witness and report on real, devastating situations. One of those photojournalists was standing right in front of me. The lecturer also showed me that decisions have to be made quickly when it comes to deciding if it is appropriate to take a photo at a specific moment and that knowing how to handle certain situations before hand is very important.
This class has a lot to cover and I realized that when I took the second book quiz. Professor explained what he could in class, but everything else, I had to read in the book. This class was, in a way, half self-taught. Surprisingly, I enjoyed that. If I could talk to all the future ethical decision makers, I would tell them to not be afraid. This class is not as boring or as complicated as it may sound. It is vital to our communications education here at Penn State and to our careers in the world outside of State College.