Two Ethical Lessons
The first ethical lesson I learned from taking COMM 409 is to avoid plagiarism at all costs. I knew growing up as a kid in middle school want I wanted to be when I grew up, and that was either work for a sports team or become a sports journalist. Therefore, many responsibilities came with being a journalist and one of them is to avoid plagiarism. A great example of how the Professor Zhong interpreted plagiarism is showing us the film “Shattered Glass”. The way Stephen Glass plagiarized his work in the movie is something I won’t imagine doing in my future because I know what the consequences are working as a journalist.
Another ethical lesson I learned was minimizing harm when journalists are making ethical decisions. The importance of this lesson comes with many outcomes when dealt the wrong way. When dealing with harm, the main questions come to mind which are, “Who gets hurt if we tell this story? And does the benefit to the public of knowing that truth outweighs that harm?” (SPJ Code of Ethics) Journalists find themselves worried about the story their publishing rather than ruining someone’s life, which is something I am going to think twice about before reporting/publishing a story in the future.
Case Study That Impressed Me
The case study that impressed me the most has to be the one I did with my group. Since our group topic was Invasion of Privacy, we decided to work on the Oliver Sipple Case. The summary of this case is something I would never imagine happening to a human being, which is why it impressed me. The case is mostly about a former army veteran named Oliver Sipple who attempted to stop Sara Jane Moore as she fired a pistol at President Gerald Ford on September 22, 1975. However, none of that mattered because Sipple was accused of being gay by the media and thought that was more newsworthy than the shooting.
This case showed me that anything can happen in the media and it can reflect on individuals in both a positive and negative way. Sipple basically had his life ruined and it really put things in perspective about how reporters should release news.
Conclusion
Overall, this class has helped me learn different topics and terms that I will definitely benefit me in the future. I know for a fact that I will across ethics in the future and it will be much easier to understand after taking this course. With that being said I would recommend this course to someone who is feeling unsure because there are a lot of interesting things an individual can acknowledge.