One important ethical lesson I learned from this semester was earlier on. I feel like through the movie “Shattered Glass” and through the lecture given following, I learned that it is never okay to give false sources, create false information and completely fabricate a story in order to get more viewers or gain more popularity. I understand that most reporters are on a time crunch in these situations, but I have learned that it is better to not complete your work by the deadline than to fabricate parts or all of a story only for the followers of your organization to find out. This not only make you as a reporter look bad, but your organization is no longer trustworthy when it comes to presenting news because you have chosen to take this path. Especially these days, it is important to maintain a good relationship with your viewership. I’ve also learned this semester that plagiarizing or copyrighting work is unethical. If someone else had the idea first, you have to give them due credit for their work. This is not only a decision about ethics, it is also the law when it comes to copyright purposes. If something is copyrighted, you cannot use it unless there are certain circumstances or a few exceptions.
The case study I learned about that impressed me the most was the case about the Rolling Stone rape story. It was so interesting to me that the reporter and the source both were not able to come up with valuable sources to make sure key facts were actually true. After this, the public had a very negative connotation associated with the situation and the magazine was punished for that.
I think this course will have an impact on my life and future career because I have learned what to do and what not to do in sticky situations where the answer is not always so clear. I will also be thinking ethically when I am making decisions regarding the public or my news organization. I think informing the public is the most important job of the press, but it is also to maintain core, valuable and ethical ideas while doing so.
All in all, I think this course has been especially helpful by showing me some tools as to how to approach a situation. I think that some of the decisions I would’ve made before I walked into this class would be different than they are now walking out. I had a good experience and would recommend the class to other Communications majors at Penn State. Everyone can learn a little bit more about ethics in the media, and overall.
