Part 1
The two most important ethical lessons that I learned throughout this course was in regards to the situation with Stephen Glass and the lesson we had about reporting on rape as a journalist. These two lessons taught me great ethical lessons as far as how to go about getting stories as a journalist. Glass’s case helped me understand not only the consequences of fabricating stories but what it does to the audience as well. The lesson entitled “reporting on rape” served me well also because it highlighted how journalists have handled them in the past and how they should be handled. It emphasizes how important it is to keep the names of rape victims anonymous while reporting as a journalist. It was interesting to see how the ethical principle of minimizing harm played a role in reporting on victims.
Part 2
The case study that impressed me the most of all was the one including Stephen Glass. It impressed me so much because it brought to light so many ethical messages that are important for every up and coming journalists to know. It shed light on how we as journalists have a duty to seek the truth and report it and being accountable and transparent. Glass took a very unethical approach to doing his stories. He would make up stories and use sources that didn’t exist to put them together. He continued this for most of his career and he lost all credibility once he was caught.
He never was able to make a full recovery from it. Examples like this one give them more incentive to not believe what we say and in turn gives us a bad rep. We must always seek the truth and be accountable for our actions. It’s essential to be real with the people and look at things from their perspective.
Part 3
We serve the public first at all times. This class has taught me that and I see this class having a great impact on my life and career moving forward. It has already impacted my life because I go through situations and I am met with ethical decisions that I have to make and think through.
Part 4
As a whole, I believe that this was a good course and it helped me shape my own opinions about different things with ethical principles behind it. As a whole, this course was one that I appreciated and I feel did a lot in regards to my thinking process. Before this course I was not aware of the ethical principles that we as journalists are prompted to follow. I knew as anything else in life, it’s better to tell the truth than to lie because it all coms to the light. What this course has done is emphasis all these things further.