Overall, I believe this course was very helpful in my college career. Even though I am not a journalism major, I still learned two ethical values that are important in my life. The first is fabrication. Granted, I always believed fabrication to be wrong, but this class helped me understand that it is not something that is always done on purpose. Avoiding fabrication involves careful attention to the works that influence you and being able to demonstrate your appreciation of them without copying them. In example, I have spent a long time of my life writing scripts for movie ideas I have thought of. Of course, most of my movie ideas came from other movies that I admire. After watching the Lord of the Rings movies, I started to write my own trilogy of movies about a similar topic. However, after I had learned more about fabrication this semester, I noticed that my trilogy of films tend to seem as if they are copying the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. I noticed that I need to refrain from having my story move like Tolkien’s because I want it to be my own idea, not a ripoff of his.
The second ethical value I learned throughout this course was the importance of privacy. Like fabrication, I believed privacy to be a very important principle before this class. However, I never realized how easy it can be to invade one’s privacy, especially in news. Before this class, I would have believed that privacy does not pertain to victims that file a case against another. However, now I notice that this is definitely true, especially when it comes to victims of sexual abuse and harassment. Now, I believe that naming a victim automatically is unethical, and you should always acknowledge privacy before you take action.
There was one case study throughout the course that stuck with me, and that was the case study regarding Harvey Weinstein. In the case study, the journalist used a clip of footage that revealed Weinstein’s destructive personality, but it was filmed without his knowledge so he was not allowed to use it. Honestly, I feel that this should be acceptable if it shows proof that someone is acting wrong. I feel everyone can agree that Weinstein is an unethical man. After all, anyone who uses sexual harassment as a weapon cannot be considered to be ethical. I feel that, even though he was not aware of the footage, it should be used in order to show evidence that these sexual harassment charges are not entirely made up.
While reflecting on this course, I noticed that it is not simply a course that I can write off at the end of the semester. Ethics are a vital part of business, and even though I am not a journalist, I value that these ethical values I learned in this course can be very important to my future. I value the passion the professor has towards both his students and his field. It was a very important lesson to learn because I want to be as ethical as him if I reach a position in my field that important. I have already recommended this course as a necessity for some of my fellow Telecommunications majors because I had a very enjoyable experience in it this semester.