Firstly, an ethical lesson that I deemed important is plagiarism. I understand it is a very basic answer but it has everything to do with me being in college right now. There are a good amount of ways that people could unknowingly commit some form of plagiarism and they could lead to serious consequences. I have learned to always be aware of such problems and also to always double-check everything I do and include some form of credits, even when it is not necessarily a scholarly paper.
Another ethical lesson would be selecting what to cover and portray in a news story. There was a good amount of debate in class that really got me thinking about moral standards in general. There are a lot of sides of a story, and also what to include in stories. As a journalist, we should obviously try to be impartial and do our best to bring the truth out there for the public. However, sometimes some of those information are unethical to be released and also might not be appropriate for mass publication or broadcast. I understand the need of having a protocol in hand for such situation, but then it really differs on a case-by-case basis.
One case study we did that impressed me the most is probably the story of the Miami woman crashing her car into the water and we looked at how the local news broadcasts decided to cover the tragic incident. For one, it is a shocking case as in all the information available, all those stakeholders involved and also the vast differences in what to release. Also, it is also a breaking news case meaning that it is the prime case study for making big decisions on the dot. That was definitely one of the bigger discussions and (non-confrontational) arguments we had in class as in how to cover the news itself, and that allowed me as a student to take in all the opinions, even those I didn’t agree with, and really consider the reasoning behind it.
I understand that this class is for journalism students all across the board with different aspirations and not everything is applicable to every person in class. I aspire to be a sports journalist, and although there are a good amount of moral controversies in sports, not all of them are on the same level as what we discussed in class. The one biggest takeaway I gained from this class is actually the sourcing and also the representation of my material. A lot of sports is crafting the right narrative for longform pieces, and sourcing would be a crucial part of being an effective storyteller. Also, it also matters when it comes to breaking news. The shift toward social media allowed everyone to spread information one way or another, and a lot of the more esteemed beat writers have been duped by trolls on the internet.
Overall, though, I feel really positive about this class. It is a theory-heavy class, but the case studies are helpful in further deciphering the moral code. I would say most of the ideas, apart from the specific EDM models, are rather common sense and they could be hard to grasp at points just because you feel like you would already know as an ethical person. However, it worked out for me and I heavily credit that on us actually having the opportunities to put such ideas to use.