A very important ethical value I learned about while in this course was trust. In the past four years, the idea of fake news has circulated heavily. Deciding to work in the journalism field, I knew that I always had to tell the truth in my work. What I failed to understand was how important the truth is. At first, I thought the truth was important so that as a reporter you wouldn’t be in trouble, like Stephen Glass, or fired. But, the ethical importance of truth lies in the public. A journalist accepts a job promising to report truthfully, and this promise might be made through news organizations, but, ultimately it is a promise to all of its readers. The second principle I learned about was a journalist’s social obligation to reports bad and good news. I think it’s easy to write about bad things that happen, the public flocks to these stories. But, as journalists, we must work to keep the news platform balanced.
My favorite case we learned about was the one centered on Armstrong Williams. We scratched the surface in class, but my group case study decided on the Williams case for our topic, conflict of interest. What really shocked me most about his case was how under my radar it was. I was young at the time, it wouldn’t have been a topic of interest at the dinner table. But, I’m surprised in middle and high school this never came up. Growing up, I almost inherently knew that people bribed and blackmailed others with the purpose of getting something in return. Williams wasn’t necessarily bribed, but the taxpayer money he was given was binding. While writing our case study paper, something I always wondered was if Williams, a conservative reporter, would’ve promoted the NCLB Act on his own, without any money. What I’m trying to get at is this particular case study had so many what if’s and that’s what interested me the most beyond the fact the Williams felt he was acting ethically in accepting $240,000 of taxpayer money.
I truly believe that this course will have a lasting impact on my future in the journalism field, as well as in my day-to-day life. As a whole, I learned specifics in reporting that I didn’t know before. A specific that was most surprising to me was undercover reporting. I’ve always dreamt of being an investigative or undercover reporter. In high school, a story based on the company Fairlife and its abuse of animals was released. A reporter had gone undercover for some years working hands-on with the cows. He broke the story with images, quotes, videos, everything imaginable. It was at that moment that I became very interested in undercover reporting and the good it was possible of. Flash forward to C403 the topic of undercover reporting was discussed. Undercover reporting should be a last resort decision. I never realized that in deceiving others in order to get the story will reflect on the journalist’s character and alter what the public thinks about the said journalist. Writing this, it seems like common sense that going undercover is a dive into the deep end of risk and reward. But, before this class, I only thought of the dive as perpetuating a journalist into reward. In my own life, I think this course has simply shaped me into a more well-rounded person. Professor Zhong taught me how to look at debatable concepts from both sides and seeing the pros and cons of both.
As a whole, I really enjoyed this class. I didn’t really know what to expect after the first day, but I was pleasantly surprised. Instead of being a class about rules that reporters simply must follow, there were examples and the greater effect of breaking said rules other than simply getting into trouble. This class taught me a lot about the ethical challenges a journalist may face, but also the power they have to do good in the world.