Two ethical lessons that stood out to me was ethical decision making when you are reporting on a story and whether to name victims in a story. These two issues seem to be the most important because together they create one of the hardest tasks for a professional journalist. The three levels of ethical decision making that we learned in class help to simplify the process of making an ethical decision. Learning to compare alternatives when making a decision seems to be the key to making the correct decision when on the job. Deciding whether or not to release a victims name is a sub section of ethical decision making within journalism. You have to weigh revealing the name for the sake of accurate journalism versus the consequences of hurting the victim’s reputation.
The most meaningful case we studied in class was the Stephen Glass case. This was one of the first cases we learned about it, and it set the tone for how seriousness ethics are in journalism. The way he went about deceiving his co-workers was ridiculous and intriguing. How far he went with his lies is the most interesting part. He got so stuck in his web of lies he ended up hurting those that stood up for him. Glass wanted to stand out so badly for his unique stories, the pressure of maintaining such high level stories got to him. He cracked under the pressure of journalism and decided to lie and take the easy way out.
Comm 409 left a large impact on me this semester. As an aspiring professional journalist, it was interesting to see different cases in which journalists faced ethical dilemmas in the work place. I know if I continue down this career path I will most likely have to face similar ethical dilemmas. This class has given me great insight into how to deal with these situations. I feel like I am better prepared to be a journalist now than ever before.
I really enjoyed this class and you as a professor. I found the information we learned was informative and insightful. The discussions were often thought provoking and interesting. Listening to different student’s opinions about ethical situations was an awesome part of the class as well. This was easily my favorite communications course I have taken at Penn State and would recommend you as a professor to anyone that ever asked me.