Comm 409 has taught me more information than almost any class I’ve taken at Penn State. Each lecture I learned more about the media world and how important ethics are. One of the biggest things I’m taking away from this class is one of the first lessons we learned early in the semester. After watching Shattered Glass, I really realized how important it is to be 100% truthful and honest when in the Journalism field. What I really enjoyed about this fabrication lesson is how we watched a movie while learning about it. Watching the movie really helped me fully grasp the idea and the importance of remaining truthful as a journalist. The story of Stephen Glass was the perfect example to show us as students about fabrication in the media. Although fabrication is extremely hard to be proved, it will happen if you are unfaithful and untruthful in journalism.
The second ethical lesson that stood out to me in this class was the lesson on consent. I believe consent in the journalism world is extremely important, as everyone has the right to control their own privacy. As a journalist, it’s really important when to know whether something is worth reporting on if it is considered an invasion of privacy. We learned in this lesson that if something is in the public and we have a desire to report on it, we’re allowed to report on it. The thing I remember most from this lesson was newsworthiness vs. invasion of privacy. If it is damaging one’s reputation and you don’t have consent to report on it, is it really that newsworthy?
The case of Stephen Glass stood out to me the most. I think I was so interested in Stephen Glass because we really got to see where he started from, and where his career ended. He risked his entire career just to have people read his work. So many people called him a compulsive liar, considering that fact that even when he was called out for his lies, he continued them. We got to see, as a class, how his life and career fully fell apart. His acts of fabrication caused an uproar in not only his life, but in the New Republic world as well. He burned bridges with both the public and the coworkers. As a class, we discussed whether or not we’d hire him for our company. I personally said I would not hire him, as I would hate to put my company at risk for faking news and fabricating stories. I believe his reputation is forever harmed.
I really really enjoyed this class as a whole. We truly learned the basics of ethics in the media and the journalism world. The information I learned in this class will 100% help me in the future when I am hopefully employed as a writer or reporter in D.C. or New York City. I believe I will look back on this class and remember all of the consequences I am able to face if I make a mistake in this field of work. This class truly emphasized the importance of your person image in the journalism field and highlighted the importances of ethics in the media. I believe Dr. Z is a highly knowledgeable professors with so much background in the field of journalism and ethics. His experience in the real world made this class 100% more credible, easy to get through and made the class a very desirable class. I would definitely recommend this class (and Dr. Z) to a friend.