This class broadens my mind on news media ethics. Ethics seemed simple to me before taking this class. Do not copy others work and do not make up a story– these were all I had in mind for journalism ethics prior to this class. During this class, I realized that news media ethics is far more complicated as I thought before. Ethical disciplines must be obeyed in order to be an ethical journalist.
Two crucial ethical lessons that stood out the most for me are accountability and the diversity in the newsroom. I learned that a journalist must be accountable for his story. Fabrication is not allowed in journalism. No matter how many workloads journalist faces, fabrication cannot be forgiven in the journalism field. Be accountable for what you are writing on is the most fundamental principle that every student in this class needs to keep in mind. A journalist should be responsible for the readers by writing true stories.
Diversity in the newsroom has huge significance for me. I learned two key concepts on diversity in journalism. One is that journalist has the responsibility to cover stories about different skin color and sexuality since the duty of a journalist is to inform the public about the reality of society. Another concept is that the newsroom should always welcome and embrace journalists with diverse skin color and sexual orientation because they can bring different point of views when writing a story. That is, a diverse journalist can provide a unique perspective when writing a story of their group that a white journalist could not think of.
Photo use in journalism is the most impressed case study for me. Prior to this class, I never knew that some news photos are altered in order to make the story more appealing. However, I discovered that it is unethical to change the original meaning of the photo by alteration, which would mislead readers as well. Since news photos provide readers an impact of the incident, manipulating them would make a huge difference for the readers on what is happening on the scene, which is considered to be unethical.
I take this class as an elective since my major is public relation. I never realized that there are so many rules to follow by simply writing a story before taking this class. At the same time, I found it was enjoyable to learn the ethical rules of the journalism field. I began to read the news, which I rarely did prior to this class. I am able to distinguish whether it is a fake news or not when reading a news social media after taking this class. I hope I will have the chance to study more about news in the future.
This class expands my conception of not only news media ethics but how to be an ethical journalist. This class also helps my public relations notion on dealing with people, such as when talking to an interviewee or a reader. By learning news media ethics, my understanding of communication deepened in every aspect.
