I have learned many ethical lessons from this class throughout this semester. An important ethical concept I learned is from the case study my group did. During the research process for this presentation, I learned many principles in photojournalism. Photographers cannot alter or manipulate pictures since it will mislead audiences and it may give bad impressions on the reporting subjects. From the OJ Simpson trial, the Times’ magazine altered the image of Simpson, made his skin color seemed to be darker. This somehow caused racial problems because many says it made him appeared to be guiltier. Accuracy and precision of photojournalism are what’s essential for photojournalists. They are not supposed to manipulate pictures, audiences deserve to know the truth. The other ethical lesson I learned from this class is that we cannot invade people’s privacy while reporting. The legal definition of Invasion of privacy is “deep intrusions on human dignity by those in economic or governmental power”. Everyone has their own rights on keeping their things private. But journalists need to learn to distinguish between newsworthiness and invasion of privacy. There are also some grey areas, that is why decisions of privacy of journalism requires disciplines.
One case study I learned that impressed me the most is from the story of Stephen Glass. He fabricated most of his stories when he was working for The New Republic and he lied to his coworkers and his boss, resulting in no one believes in him and he got fired afterwards. Even if he wants to do something that is ethical, he cannot be trusted anymore. He became an unethical person. Ethics is important, it matters in the journalism industry. Journalists cannot deceive people especially audiences and those are working with us. Plagiarism in the journalism industry cannot be tolerated no matter what.
For my future career and life, I learned that ethics matters, no matter what we do in the future, ethics always need to be put in the first place. The decision-making also helps a lot with my future path. This class as a whole is very impressing. I never thought I would learn so much from this course. Ethics is important for everyone and I feel very lucky because I am able to take this class in the university.