Two important ethical lesson
Throughout the course, we have discussed many important ethical lessons. One topic that taught me an important ethical lesson was our lesson on the invasion of privacy. I also covered this topic. little for my group presentation so I was able to learn about this topic in depth. I learned the importance of the audiences’ right to know vs the victims right to privacy. In many cases, like sexual assault, victims want to remain nameless, due the stigma surrounding sexual assault and the fear of being blamed or looked at differently. On the other hand, many news rooms debate whether the audience has a right to know who these victims are. Many news rooms have a policy to not reveal the names of sexual assault victims, however, high profile cases often challenge this policy. It is essentially up the news organization to make an ethical judgement on whether to reveal or not. Another topic that taught an ethical lesson was our lecture on truth and deception. Unfortunately, in journalism there are people who intentionally deceive and lie to the audience and colleges for personal gain. Society relies on and trusts news organizations to tell the truth, making it so important for journalists to practice ethical journalism. Fabricating information, withholding information, bluffing, etc. are against what journalists stand. It is so important that journalists have these ethical standards in place while reporting
Case study
The case study that by far intrigued me the most this semester was the one on Stephen Glass. The story was absolutely eye opening to me. Before then, I had always trusted news organizations to be truthful and have the audience’s best interest in mind. It did not occur to me that a newsroom employee would stoop so low to deceive an audience and colleges for personal gain. The way Stephen Glass would manipulate notes and fabricate elaborate stories to impress those around him was extremely concerning and shocking. The movie, “Broken Glass”, that we watched in class was a great way to learn about the case. It did such a great job of showcasing his thought process, how he went about deceiving, and how the pressure of impressing those around him allowed him to do what he did. I think watching this movie during the first few class days was such a great way to start off the semester, as it immediately intrigued me and made me look forward to learning more about news media ethics.
Impact on future
I certainly think this course will impact both my life and career. In terms of my life, I believe I will think twice about what I read and see on the news, knowing that there are people out there whose intentions are to deceive. I will make more of an effort to get my news from media organizations that I trust have a firm ethical stance on journalism. In terms of my future career, I believe this course set me up to be wise and successful. I am a marketing major minoring in media studies, and I intend on having a career in digital media. This course has given me the ability to pursue that career with the tools to make ethical and wise decisions going forward in digital media.
General Reflection
As a media studies minor, Comm 409 is not a required class for me to take. I choose to take this course simply because it sounded interesting and was an area of study I was not very familiar with. I am extremely happy I decided to take this class. The cases we learned about were all extremely interesting and eye opening. These topics are very different from what I learn in my business classes, so they were refreshing and intriguing to me. I know I will take a lot of these lessons moving forward and incorporate what I’ve learned into my daily life. Dr. Z did a great job of introducing us students to these topics and making the lectures interesting, as well as taking the time to get to know us on a personal level. Overall, I have had a very have a very positive experience taking this course and would certainly recommend to others.