This course has taught me a lot about the ethics of journalism, which was to be expected. What I did not expect was to learn about so many cases about various ethical problems in journalism today. One of these cases was about Stephen Glass, both through the movie Shattered Glass and class discussion. I had already known that falsifying information was a good way to lose your job, but I did not know of its longer lasting repercussions. For instance, after Glass was fired he went to Georgetown law school and graduated but was not able to find a job in law due to his previous ethical transgressions while working in journalism. This shows how serious of an issue publishing fictional information is and that it is something that must be avoided at all costs.
Another case study that helped me gain a better understanding of an ethical issue was when the Centre Daily Times published the names and addresses of people who were protesting a death threat. This shows how complex the ethics of privacy in journalism. Since the protesters were arrested, the Centre Daily Times published their addresses and names, as is customary for anyone who is arrested. Critics retaliated by saying that there should have been an exception all things considered. This case shows that privacy is something that publications can have broad guidelines for, but still often comes down to a case by case basis.
One case study that impressed me the most was one that me and my group did our project on. The case study was about Project Veritas and their undercover reporting of a campaign. A woman went into a campaign office and got a job while giving a fake name and pretending to be pregnant. She proceeded to try to record conversations in the campaign office in order to portray the candidate in a negative light. She was eventually uncovered and forced to leave. This case study was very interesting to me because of the concept of deception. Since the woman did not infiltrate another news publications and did not lie to the public, which are the two things that there is a consensus about not doing. Yet there is little doubt that what Project Veritas did was not exactly honorable. This is yet another demonstration of how many ethical questions must be answered on a case by case basis.
I think that this class will greatly affect my future career. As an aspiring print journalist many of the cases and dilemmas that were touched upon in class may help me steer clear of any unintentional problems in my career. They also drive home how devastating the repercussions would be if I were to commit any serious from of deception or plagiarism. It will also help me in my life since it will help me better interpret the news that I see and read. This will help me make decisions and better understand some of the information that I see in the media.
My reflection of the course as a whole is a very positive one. I feel that through the examination of so many different case studies, both myself and my classmates were able to better understand the ethics of news media. We learned, or at least I learned, that answering ethical questions is often not an exact science, but the important part is to be well informed and do your due diligence when it comes to making the ethical and right decision.