Over the course of this semester in COMM 409, we have learned many ethical lessons in journalism. I found the entire experience to be very eye opening and engaging. On the surface, when I signed up for the course, I’ll admit that I thought I knew everything there was to know about ethics when it came to journalism. Since grade school we’d been taught to not fabricate, and make up stories. Just for reference, I’d heard the story of Jayson Blair countless times as an example of what not to do in the world of journalism. Though, as I sat in class, I came to the very fast realization that there was much more to journalism ethics that what I had first thought. Every week, we learned about an ethical issues in class. They all got me thinking about hard moral decisions that I might one day have to make in the world of journalism. Most of these decisions in class we were faced with don’t usually have a clear cut right and wrong. This made things very interesting and engaging throughout the lectures and class as a whole.
Two of my favorite ethical lessons that I learned from the course were the ethics in decision making for photos and ethical decisions in society. The photo lesson was my favorite of the entire course because of how much it got me thinking. The decision process that goes into choosing photos for publication was very intriguing. As we were faced with multiple photos we saw the class divided on a lot of the photos, then learning that every one of the photos that we looked at were chosen for publication was pretty amazing. The whole process of discussing a photo’s impact on the story as a whole, adds an entire new dimension as a whole. It can be the thing that takes a story that is pretty good, and pushes it over the top. The impact that it can give readers, places them at the scene and shows them the emotion of the given situation. The other lesson that left a great impression was the ethics in society. There were so many different situations that I wouldn’t imagine you’d face in this field. Most of them were centered on the issues of conflict of interest, which I learned can pop up in places you wouldn’t necessarily expect.
The case study though that most interested me was one that focused on the invasion of privacy. It was the Hulk Hogan versus Gawker case. The entire case showed how detrimental invasion of privacy can be when centered on a journalism organization. Hulk Hogan had a sex tape of himself leaked without his consent in Gawker’s website and Hogan then sued in response. The fallout of the entire case led to the demise of Gawker as a whole (Ember). The case went on to show that no journalism outlet can be immune to possibly being put out of business in a case like this. Really goes to show how harmful breaking an ethical act like invasion of privacy can be in the journalism world.
As I look back at this class I can say that it has definitely transformed by thought process as I go about my daily life. I know look at decision making as a whole more closely and often think more and more about everything that I’m doing. There have been times in my friend group where I have used the skills we have learned in class in social interactions. Through the ethical and moral decision making process. I can say that having gone through this course, I have come out as a better person and journalist. I will most definitely used what I learned in this course in my career and daily life. I think a class this is definitely an asset especially to students wanting to pursue journalism because there are so many types of decisions that you will faced with in the future. When it happens you’ll want to make the right decision, and I have learned how through my experiences in this class.
In conclusion my view on this course as a whole I believe has helped me greatly. I know that my thinking and decision making skills have grown because of it. I’d highly recommend any journalism student take this class, because I think they will come out a better journalist for doing so. I had a lot of fun thinking through the different scenarios and it strengthened my views on morals and ethics as a whole. I think ethics are especially important in life, and especially in journalism. If you don’t have a strong knowledge or view on ethics, we have seen that it will lead you to making a detrimental mistake like we saw with Jayson Blair and Stephen Glass. Through this class I have learned to not repeat their mistakes.
References:
Ember, S. (2016, November 02). Gawker and Hulk Hogan Reach $31 Million Settlement. Retrieved April 26, 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/03/business/media/gawker-hulk-hogan-settlement.html?_r=0