Throughout the semester in Comm 409, I have learned many ethical lessons that I can apply to my everyday life in both the near and far future. One huge ethical lesson which we discussed all semester long is lying and deception. In both the Stephen Glass and Janet Cooke cases, tarnished reputations are a result of lying. Stephen Glass has been used as an example for years in regards to journalists lying and Janet Cooke was forced to return her Pulitzer Prize after the mistakes she made. The second ethical lesson I learned is how important it is to have consent when publishing stories and quoting sources, especially sources that discuss sensitive topics. For my group project we looked specifically at the Brock Turner sexual assault case, where the victim chose to keep her identity a secret until just recently. It was extremely important for journalists to keep this victim anonymous as it was their choice.If journalists were to name the victim it would ruin their own reputation as a journalist and no one would trust them or want to be used as a source in their stories.
One case study that I learned about in this course that impressed me the most is the Stephen Glass case. I think this case study had the biggest impact on me because it is one of the first topics we learned and discussed in class and we continually connected and came back to throughout the semester. We originally watched the movie “Shattered Glass” during class which really set a tone for how serious the Stephen Glass case is. Glass was a journalist who thought he was invincible and could fabricate stories and sources to gain high praises in the workplace. The case study of Stephen Glass shows how one unethical decision and being unable to come clean of your mistakes can ruin one’s reputation and career. This case shows exactly what a journalist shouldn’t do and how important telling the truth is.
This course has taught me many important lessons that I should apply to my future career and life. With graduation in May quickly approaching, I hope to go into the Public Relations and Advertising field, specifically Business to Business Advertising. Within this profession, one is constantly in contact with journalists and writing on behalf of their clients. I have learned how important it is to be ethically correct in the digital age and how far telling the truth really does take you in this specific profession.
Overall, I really enjoyed this course and I will take many of the lessons learned and apply them long after graduation. I think all of the assignments in this course were relevant and timely in regards to what we were learning. The structure of the class was enjoyable and attendance being enforced with students still being able to miss class from time to time was extremely helpful as life gets in the way throughout the semester. I also enjoyed that we had to go to office hours for points and it made Dr. Zhong extremely approachable and made me feel more comfortable participating in class after meeting and speaking with him. I think Dr. Zhong’s Comm 409 course is extremely important for students to take not just in the Journalism major but even general communications students.