Ethical Lessons:
Two lessons that really hit home for me throughout the course were the topics of fake news and photographic editing. The first is becoming an increasing threat within our society; taking advantage of group-think and reinforcing both stereotypical and outright wrong ideals into the minds of people who are quickly willing and wanting to believe it. For instance, the recent presidential race. Articles upon articles of fake news propagandizing both candidates came flooding in through sites that, upon first glance, would seem reasonable enough to believe. How much of a direct impact this had on the race overall is unknown; some say it played a big role on the older conservative groups who use sharing sites such as Facebook, but the fact of the matter is, that question cannot precisely be broken down since we simply cannot know what exactly people are thinking.
The latter is something that is becoming harder and harder to detect with our technological advancements. As even shown in class today (12/4) we were shown that people are capable of editing other moving human beings entirely out of videos, as if they weren’t even there. As a whole we saw more antiquated methods such as speeding up boats to make them appear faster for a better story, but these new methods are so near perfect that if you showed it to me, I would believe it instantly, no questions asked.
Case Study:
The case study of Stephen Glass is one that I, on a much smaller level, personally dealt with back in early high school. 13 years old and not ready for my first 5-page essay, I found myself plagiarizing from one of last year’s papers I got from a friend. Given modern advances such as Turnitin.com I was quickly caught and dismantled. Thinking back to that memory is the reason I swear to never do it again, and if push comes to shove, accept a 0 at my own hands than stealing from someone else. Perhaps this made me a little sympathetic towards Glass but watching him fall apart lie after lie in front of his colleagues was nothing more than an affirmation that I’m actually happy I did what I did when I was young and have since learned. People fall under pressure constantly but risking one’s entire career and future is not worth it in a professional work environment as you’ll almost always be caught.
Reflection:
The course as a whole was one I enjoyed going to and confirmed my place within the major. I can’t say I share the same ambitions of some of my peers with dreams of political or breaking news coverage; but I can say that I will work to be the best at what I do regardless honestly and wholeheartedly. There are far too many courses I’ve taken that wash astray from any of my interests, but this was not one of them. It was insightful, cautious and at sometimes even funny. I’ll always reflect and wish I spoke up more, but I’m happy with what I’ve taken away mentally from the class.