As an aspiring journalist, I think this course was extremely beneficial. It began triggering thoughts in my head about just how much journalists really do have to think about when producing news content. Whether it’s online, in print or broadcasted via the radio or television, journalists are not only representing themselves but the company they work for as well. Decision making is an umbrella for a multitude of ethical lessons that we covered throughout the semester in this course, and one that stuck with me a lot. Journalists not only need to decide what stories they want to cover and think are news worthy, they have to decide who the best and appropriate people to contact would be and which parts of the story they want to keep or cut. Learning what to keep or cut from a story was one of the biggest things that I was able to take away from this course and ties into the second important ethical lesson — minimizing harm. Before this course I don’t think I focused enough on the importance of minimizing harm. Two of the main lectures that really stuck with me the most in terms of minimizing harm was the lecture by Prof. Beale about photojournalism and when we discussed in class the dos and don’ts of reporting crimes such as sexual assault. I found it interesting that in photojournalism and reporting specific crimes, there still is not a set criteria of what journalists are and aren’t allowed to publish. Even in today’s society, there were still some news stations compared to others for example who thought the photograph of ‘the falling man’ from September 11, 2001 was ethical and others that did not, as well as some who will publish the names of both the victim and offender in a rape situation depending on the case and some will not.
The case study of Stephen Glass was one that impressed me the most and has kept me baffled ever since we studied it in the beginning of the semester. It still blows my mind that he got away with fabricating as many stories as he did. Though he was a young journalist, he still should have obviously known that creating names of sources, events and completely making up information would eventually lead to him losing his job. The case of Stephen Glass was so well known throughout the journalism field at the time and still is today but yet other journalists didn’t take Glass’ case as a learning experience, but instead wound up fabricating just as he did. Stephen Glass’ case seems to serve as the “poster child” for fabrication yet there have been multiple other cases of fabrication after his time. Jayson Blair fabricated information and stories for the New York Times in 2002 — just four years after Glass. How did he not see all of the trouble that Glass went though and not learn from his mistakes?
In the future as a reporter and hopefully producer sometime down the road, the lessons this course has taught will stick throughout my professional career. When I’m faced with hard decisions about what to keep and cut for a story or what the best way to minimize the harm for the public and sources involved, I’ll know the proper steps to take to make the right decision. Before this course I didn’t know about the Potter Box or what most news outlets agree or disagree on in terms of appropriate ways to report crimes or stories of diversity such as sexual orientation or race.
When combing all of the different lectures, videos and class discussions based on the various ethical dilemmas journalists may face, I think that this course covered a lot of important lessons. Our class touched base on many real-world situations that we must be aware of if we go into the journalism world after graduation. I think the use of a variety of videos to show how news outlets covered certain stories differently was extremely important for this course. We were able to compare actual footage and news stories that were already released whether they were ethical in their reporting or not, which I think taught us more than simply reading a code of ethics. As a whole, if students want to be reporters, editors, producers, directors, etc. they need to take this course. No matter what your role is, if you’re reporting news, you need to learn how to be ethical from beginning to end.