An ethical lesson I took away from this course comes from the movie Shattered Glass. I had seen the movie before in high school, but after revisiting it in college, I was able to take more away from it. I, of course, now have a deeper understanding of the unethical nature of plagiarism and the damage it can do to an individual and a news organization. However, after watching the movie a second time, I now also understand the ethical consequences of not only fabricating stories in the first place, but also lying about them thereafter. The dishonesty that Glass showed towards his news station and his boss are a pinnacle example of disrespect, and I think that it shows that pride should not come before honesty. This is a lesson I take away not only in professional terms, but also in all other areas of life.
The other lesson I want to touch on comes from the lectures about disclosing information and the ethics of “perks”. Prior to this class, I understood clearly that bribing and other types of exchanges for a story were unethical, but I did not realize that even travel writing can often be construed as unethical. I did not know that even when that information is disclosed, it can still affect the integrity of the journalist writing the story. This makes sense to me now, and since learning this information I am now sure to pay closer attention to disclaimers and disclosures in articles, that allow for an important lens to read the story through.
One of the studies that impressed me the most was the case about Brian Williams. I was vaguely familiar with the story, but after learning about his fabrication in more detail and taking the time to reflect, I am so struck by the fact that Williams still is on air. I think I am most taken back by this because from my own perception, many people are unaware of Williams’ ethical issues in the past. In this example, a journalist was able to redeem himself in some ways and find a way to continue his career. I think this speaks volumes about how much weight someone’s name can carry when they are already established and well known, and about how the public registers certain ethical decisions.
This past semester in COMM 419 has led me to learn more about the world of media ethics, and left me with more knowledge of the ethical standards that exist in the industry. I came into this course thinking I knew about making ethical decisions, but it is surely interesting to learn about all of the decision making that must occur within news organizations and how often times, these choices can be complicated and difficult. In my future career, I think that I will reference the lessons I learned in the class in the back of my head when I am faced with difficult decisions. I believe the same will be true about my personal life. We are often faced with hard decisions that do not have a clear answer, but now I have the ability to reference tools and real life issues that we learned about in this class to help guide me.
Overall, having COMM419 in my schedule as a second semester senior was a pleasure. The course was straightforward, fairly easy to keep up with, fair, but still valuable and I am walking away with lessons worth learning. I especially appreciated the case studies, so that I could apply the lessons learned in class to actual events that have happened. I am happy that this class capped off my communications experience at Penn State!