Throughout Comm 409 I was always so intrigued with the principles of ethical journalism. When I first signed up for the class I decided to take it because I preferred to learn more about ethics instead of journalism than a crisis in communications. One of the biggest factors that led me to enroll in the class was the positive feedback that students had about the professor, Dr. Z. I quickly learned that he cared for his students and kept the class engaged because of how passionate he felt about the subject. This type of quality made the class that much easier to attend.
One important ethical lesson I learned throughout this course was to find the balance of reporting in journalism. What I mean by that is knowing what I think the audience deserves to know while maintaining the integrity of the people I would be reporting on. Another ethical lesson I learned was the importance of having credible information and sources. That lesson has been one of the most impactful by far because a journalist has a duty to report unbiased news to the general public. With this power, comes great responsibility.
This course will definitely benefit me in a potential career I would like to explore. Even though I do not plan on pursuing a career in journalism, I do in fact dream of pursuing a job in public relations and the two work very closely together. This class has taught me what to expect when dealing with the media and how they should act. Aside from a career, this class taught me to dig for my own information if I desire to learn the truth, always remain skeptical because stories are capable of being portrayed in many ways.
As stated before, I truly enjoyed attending this class. I learned a lot throughout the course and that is something that I am very thankful for. Professor Z encouraged students to reach out to him in case any inconvenience occurred and I praise him for that. The pandemic definitely affected the course of this class but I believe that the transition was not as hard as everyone had anticipated. I have one final course to take after this semester and Comm 409 helped me make the transition into my last class. As my last official semester at Penn State, I am glad to have taken this course.