The first important ethical lesson from class lectures/case studies that I have taken away from this course is to think about the role of ethics in the media. I think this ethical lesson is important for people who work in the media because there are certain ways of doing things in the media and there are ways that are just not right. The ways that are not right may be easier to do in the moment but in the long run, those ways may not be ethical. The second important ethical lesson from class lectures/case studies that I have taken away from this course is that citing the research you used and making sure that the research you used is based on a current scholarly article or journal article is important when completing a research paper. The reason being is because citing the research you used is the ethical thing to do and making sure you cite it properly is also the ethical thing to do and is an important ethical lesson.
One case study that I learned that impressed me the most was the study about the Allan Detrich photos. The reason being is because I thought it was very interesting to learn about how some people try to alter photos even though other photographers are taking the same photos. Detrich altered a photo of a baseball team kneeling in the outfield of a baseball field and removed a person’s legs from the photo, who was standing behind the warning track fence. Since other photographers were also taking pictures of the team, Detrich photos did not match up with the other photographers so people knew the photos were altered. I thought it was unethical what he did but I think it was helpful to see that this type of thing happens.
When I envision the impact that this course will have on my future career and life I think it will be something that will help me. I think learning about ethical principles, ethical case studies and examples of ethical decisions is something that I will be able to look back on and rely on when making choices in my career moving forward. Also, it will be important when I work and need to make ethical choices. I think with my future career and life the lessons I’ve learned from this course will be essential in my day-to-day life because of how the working world works and the rules/laws you must follow.
When I think of the course as a whole I think that it was a very insightful course that I learned a lot from and a course that was very informational. I think that the lectures that were presented in class were very interesting and helped me understand ethics in the media better. Before taking this course, I had taken an ethics course before but the course did not go into the detail that this course went into, which was great. I also thought this course as a whole was interesting due to the guest speakers who came to class and the guest speaker events I went to for the course.