Reflection on COMM 409
COMM 409 s all about ethical issues and how to make sound ethical decisions as a reporter but also these ethics extend to life as well. There were many important ethical lessons that were discussed in class, however, two groups of ethical lessons stuck with me.
The first ethical lesson that stuck with me was under the idea of the dichotomy between deception and truth-telling. Under these two large ideas that go hand in hand, I found the case studies and ethical implications of undercover reporting to be one of major importance. Throughout this semester we have learned about the importance of truth in journalism, and how truth is a fundamental part of journalistic integrity and with truth journalists build trust between themselves and their audience. Undercover reporting offers a complex ethical dilemma because it is the ultimate act of deception, pretending to be someone you are not, however, sometimes it is the only way to get the truth. Undercover reporting causes you to have to balance what is more important: the truth or deception.
The other important ethical lesson that stuck with me from this class were ones that came up from Shattered Glass and Stephen Glass’s decision to deceive his audience by printing false information and fabricating stories. The ethical lessons that stuck with me from this movie were the honesty and integrity of journalists. These ethical lessons are of great importance because these are the ethics that are at the core of what being a journalist means, and what honoring the duty of a journalist is. With honesty and integrity a journalist is able to bring the public honest, accurate, and verifiable information. A journalist is doing their duty if they are honest and have integrity and if they don’t they fail the public.
The case study that left me most impressed from this course was the movie Shattered Glass that we discussed in class as well as wrote in a previous blog post on. I think that this case study left the largest impression on me because of the scope with which Glass was able to deceive the public and ethical boundaries, and implications that he crossed. When we looked into Stephen Glass and the ethical implications of his decision to write fabricated stories his decisions stuck with me. I think that Stephen Glass has stuck with throughout this whole semester because of the fact that the ethical implications like the loss of trust from the public, loss of integrity, and the idea of deception and truth-telling are all a part of Glass’s story. All of the important ethical lessons we’ve discussed in class throughout the semester can be seen in this one case study which is why it has such an impact on me. Every time, we discussed a new ethical principle in class, my mind always wandered back to Stephen Glass and how these ethical lessons applied to him and what he did.
Ethics are all around us. All of the ethical principles we learned about this semester, integrity, honesty, deception, truth are all ethics that are not just applied to journalism but to all aspects of our lives. While I am a journalism major I want to go to law school, so while I am not looking to be a journalist the ethics of journalism still apply to my future. As a human who wants to make an impact on the world in a positive way ethics matter and apply to my future. These ethics apply to my future because as I begin to enter the next chapter of my life not just at Penn State but beyond I am reminded that my ethics shape who I am, and the choices I make help shape the world I live in. Having strong ethics makes me a better person, thus I help make the world a better place because of my strong ethics. I think that ethics will impact my life because I will have to make ethical choices as a lawyer, and the lessons I learned about the implications of ethics in Comm 409 will hopefully help me make the right decision. There will be times in my life in my career as a lawyer and just in everyday life where I will face a conflict of ethics, it is an inevitable part of life, I am hopeful that because of this course I will have the knowledge and wisdom I need to make the right choice.
As a whole, this course is useful for understanding the ethical implications of journalism and on a large scale the ethical implications of life. The ethical implications that journalists face can be translated into everyday situations as well and I think this course does a good job of providing examples of when ethics are in conflict with one another thus giving us as students the ability to weigh the ethical implications of a decision based on different but equally important ethical principles. The ethical principles discussed in this class, are not just applicable to journalism but everyday life as I have stated throughout and I think that is what makes this course so useful. Being ethical pays off in the future because it makes you a better person and helps society as a whole.