During this course, Comm 409 – News Media Ethics, I have learned more about the realistic world of journalism that I would like to get into post-graduation. The journalism industry is definitely a part of our society that does great wonders for our country, yet can also have negative influences on the minds of those reading news stories. With that being said, the most important ethical lesson I have learned in this course would be honesty and transparency. This is not only a lesson that was taught to us about journalism, but a lesson that should be laced into everyone’s character. The idea of honesty is something that I value when I look for friendships, relationships and in family members, but this course took a twist and showed us that if you do not have honesty in your character, you will never survive as a journalist. My case study, panel 1A, inspected the career and life of Jayson Blair. Blair was a great writer, and told wonderful stories, yet going into the industry and beneath his successes were struggles with being able to tell the truth in his everyday life. In this course, we analyzed various cases that were similar to Blair when it came to lying and plagiarizing, but one aspect that shocked me the most was that I learned that in order to be a journalist, you have to look at yourself and who you are as a person before you involve yourself in this industry. Underlying factors of not being honest as a person and dealing with bigger things that prevent you from telling the truth should be something you are honest with yourself about before you publish news stories. Jayson Blair had underlying issues such as alcoholism and possible mental health issues that prevented him to be honest with who he is as a writer, and wanted praise and respect from his editors rather than doing the hardworking that everyone in his office did. The film we saw in class, “Shattered Glass,” also showed how pathological lying can be seen in the industry, and how the pressure to succeed is more important than hard work and patience for your “big break”.
The second ethical lesson that I found most important in this class was consent and the value of privacy. As a reporter, you look for stories that will do well for your paper or private practice, and strive to have the best story on paper or on the internet. You want people to remember your name and the story that you worked so hard on to be read and remembered by many, but there are lines that you cannot cross. When large stories break out about people, reporters all over the world would love to get their hands on a specific quote and have someone involved in the breaking news or feature story to be in their piece, but when you get wrapped up in that mindset you also have to remember those are human beings who are going through something that everyone in the world knows about. Privacy is essential to a sane human being, where there should be things that should not be shared with everyone in the world to hear, for the sake of them as a human being and the idea that everyone in the world could hear their thoughts and feelings toward the issue. I enjoyed hearing about the different laws on consent and privacy, showing that the journalism industry takes this idea of letting sources have a say in what they would like shared with the public. To me, this was almost as important as being honest, and could easily go hand in hand.
One case study I was impressed with since I did not know a lot about it and it was very informative was about The Washington Post and Janet Cook. The group that did this case study was in the same panel as me, yet I found theirs almost more interesting than mine since I had never heard about the Janet Cook case, and had heard about Jayson Blair once before. The idea that not only did Janet Cook just fabricate facts about a child with a drug issue, she became extremely famous for her piece and took all of the fame that was given to her for it. In return, she landed a job with The Washington Post, one of America’s most successful papers, and then was caught in the act. To top it off, she even won a Pulitzer Prize for the piece that she wrote, which then proceeded to be taken away from her. The biggest issue I had with the Janet Cook case was that she got made up an extremely devastating story about a child, and believed that was okay. Once authorities were involved to search for the child, the story revealed to be fabricated and 100% made up.
To close off, I would like to speak about how this course has impacted me now and in the future, as well as some additional notes about the course with Dr. Bu Zhong. I have yet to be in a class here at Penn State that has made me think about if journalism is something I would really want to do, since it is such a complex field. The idea that one small fabrication or act of plagiarism could ruin your entire career and potential jobs in the future is terrifying, but also made me look at who I am as a person and know that I would never do that. This course showed me that journalism’s ethical values cannot be seen as just following rules, but the idea that you have to implement those values into who you are as a person rather than just for your pieces. If you implement those values into who you are, like honesty and respect for others, your job will be less challenging. This class was very special to me, especially how Dr. Bu Zhong cares for his students and wants them all to succeed. This was the first course I have taken where office hours were required, since he wants to speak to all of us and hear about our goals. When I attended office hours, we talked about things in our lives and our interests rather than just the course, because he cares about us as all as people. I would recommend anyone to take this course and hear the lessons I’ve learned in this class. Thank you for everything, I really appreciate you as a professor! End note, I am really sorry how long this is, I just wanted to get all of my thoughts on this class out in writing!