TWO ETHICAL LESSONS:
During the semester in this course, we have learned numerous ethical lessons. Some have definitely stuck out to me tremendously.
One ethical lesson that I learned in this course is that you must always be honest with your audience. If a journalists makes up information and produces false information to the public, that is doing a large disservice to the audience. I would say this lesson is the most important to me, since it is obvious how detrimental dishonesty can be. A journalist can lose their career and ruin the reputation of their company.
Another ethical lesson that I found to be important is diversity. Journalists need to be a diverse and including group. All issues are equally important when it comes to race, and diversity needs to be apparent in the field. Although major strides have been taken to report on all races and cultures, there is a lot of room for improvement. Equality still needs to be fully achieved.
CASE STUDY:
The case study that was my absolute favorite was our first study that we reviewed in class, about Stephen Glass. I truly enjoyed the movie Shattered Glass, and thought that this study was an important lesson to begin the course with. As I mentioned earlier, honesty is very important when it comes to journalism and fabrication is not tolerated in any way. I think that this case study truly outlined the worse case scenario of how badly things can turn when a journalist does fabricate stories. This study definitely set the tone for the course, and the film was a great way to get the class to engage.
COURSE IMPACT:
I believe lessons that I have learned in this course will follow me through my career and life in general. Recently, a tragedy that had occurred in my hometown, and that had affected my family personally, has been all over national news. I found myself picking up on information in media articles that was not appropriate to be published, or picking up on tactics that news companies used to make sure their content was audience sensitive. This class has definitely opened my eyes to the world of ethics and has helped me be a better journalist.
REFLECTION:
I truly enjoyed this course and loved how my classmates and I were always able to have an open conversation and share our opinions on matters. I feel that in some classes students are hesitant to share opinions; however, in our class, students were always ready to discuss ethical issues, and to listen to opposing views. Dr. Z was a fabulous professor, and truly cares for his students, which is rare! This class was definitely one of my favorite courses here at Penn State!
