This semester we were presented with multiple ethical lessons. The two that I have had in this course was conflict of interest and invasion of privacy. With the ethical lesson of conflict of interest, one case study that I learned and impressed me the most was “Shattered Glass.” I say this because I am in a class where I have to produce news stories like the main character in the movie. It is my responsibility to produce truthful stories with accurate sources and quotes. In this case study Stephen Glass manipulated his company and audience for his own success. As I learned in multiple of my comm courses, as a journalist your loyalty is to the people first. Glass wanted to keep his readers interested and have a good reputation at his company, so he produced fake stories with fake sources. What impressed me the most is that sometimes the feeling of just making something up comes across the mind so many times. Not only for me but so many others in my field of study. This is because sometimes it can so be discouraging when you can’t get in contact with anyone for sources on a story that has a deadline. Then I think about the long-term consequences of me in the real world. When it comes to the courses impact on my career and life, it has taught me a lot.
When looking back on the ethical lessons learned and all the case studies to go along with them. It is a constant reminder of what not to do, and to always use ethical values. Going into the field of broadcast journalism I will be using codes of ethics on a daily basis. Keeping my loyalty to the public first but also making sure that I font put my job in jeopardy. Overall, I feel as though this course was very helpful. All the lessons taught can be used in the real world. The group project gave me the chance to look up a case study that sparked ethical controversy outside of what we learned. It allowed me to do research and figure out for myself why the case violated codes of ethics. That helped with a better understanding of the codes. For me the one lesson that I have had, that came across in my research was invasion of privacy. As a reader, I saw no issues with the use of images and videos for a story, but in doing the research I looked at it from a different point of view. I sympathized with the victims and felt that they were entitled to just as much privacy as the we are to know what is going on.