In this class this past semester we have learned many ethical lessons dealing with news in media. The two that stuck out to me this semester were our lessons on Photoshop and invasion of privacy. When we discussed Photoshop we discussed how both magazine ads and pictures from news stories can be changed. In advertisements, companies use Photoshop and other photo editors to make their models and products look as appealing as possible. When a product is more appealing it sells better. This is the same for news stories; journalists can create fake images and write stories about them in order to gain a readers attention. If the story is appealing enough it can create extreme success for the writer, editors and new outlet. The downside to this of course is that it is unethical and can come with consequences.
What I liked most about learning about invasion of privacy in media was the actual laws that go along with them. One class that really opened my eyes to invasion of privacy is when we had a substitute teacher and he showed us a ton of pictures asking whether we believed that they were okay to publish or not. These pictures ranged from pictures of suicides to car accidents and could been seen as very graphic and an invasion to the victims and their families privacy. In the end our sub told us that they were all pictures that he took and published and there was only one that he wished he did not publish and that was the one of the suicide.
The Case Study that I enjoyed the most was the one on naming the victim. I believe this is because I was assigned to this topic and was able to learn more about it by doing the project and not just what was mentioned in class. My group specifically did a case study that reflected a victim who revealed her name and story extremely publically. While other victims that we had researched made sure to keep their identities a secret in hopes that they would not receive any backlash. The concept of the victims being able to have that power was very interesting to me.
Although I am not a journalism major I do believe this class has impacted me as a person and will impact me within my career. As a person I have realized that not everything you read can be true and that is an important thing to keep in mind. As for my career everything we learned about fact checking and being honest in your work will make me a more suitable candidate for jobs and positions, and would hopefully keep me well liked by the people I will work with in the future. Overall this class has been one of my favorite classes that I have taken for my communication major. I have learned immense amounts of information that I would not have known if I didn’t take the class and every class kept my attention. I would recommend this class in the future to other students in a communications major.