I have learned a lot in Comm 409, and I felt I’ve grown a lot as a journalist from taking this class. As someone who’s never set foot in a newsroom before this class made me look at a lot of ethical dilemmas I’ve never even thought of before.
This course has definitely helped me figure out what to do when faced with a controversial story. The case studies and guidelines we went over in class helped me have a better understanding of what goes on in the real world of news. There were tons of examples of what not to do. One thing I never would have thought of is how journalists have to keep their opinions wrapped up so as not to appear biased, even when they’re not working.
I thought deciding what pictures were appropriate to publish was an especially hard decision and the class never seemed to come to a clear consensus. I was surprised by a lot of peoples’ answers and how many of us had completely opposite opinions. One specific story I remember shocking the class was about the streaker at a local high school graduation. Everyone seemed to agree that a news station shouldn’t show the footage, but when we saw the actual coverage we thought it did add a lot to the story. Cases like that really require you to have all the information in front of you to make a proper decision and show how tricky deciding what to air can be.
As a rare journalism student who doesn’t see himself working in the news industry, I don’t really plan on being in a newsroom anytime soon. That being said, the lessons I learned in this class can transfer over into tons of different careers and I’m glad I took it. I definitely plan to work in the television industry, and I should be able to use the skills I learned in this class there.
I enjoyed this class way more than I expected. I was not thrilled when I had to schedule a 400 level ethics class, but the actuality was much more interesting than what I had pictured. The professor did a great job keeping the class engaged and I had fun every class.