Yesterday's ethics lecture marked my last journalism class of third year. I wasn't running around trying to get a story or furiously editing scripts for a newscast as you might expect from a finale to my course, but my ethics lessons are just as important as the practical side of things.
Without ethics I couldn't do my job properly. The whole foundation of journalism is built on core values like being fair and balanced and minimizing harm while presenting the truth to the public. Sometimes these values are hard to keep a hold of in the race to find stories, scoop the competition and get sources to talk to you. The main thing my ethics class taught me was to slow down, consider all angles of a complex situation and that talking to people about it is the best way to come to an ethical conclusion.
My ethics class wasn't all about figuring out gloomy conundrums though. I got to be creative in the presentation I had to give, figuring out I can do a 1930s detective movie voice in the process. I was able to spend more time with a group of people that have become good friends in the last year because of our crazy adventures through the world of journalism. And we got to do all this in really comfy chairs to boot!
So I am grateful for my ethics class and my professor and the people in the class. I am grateful for the way it taught me to look at the world differently, how it helped me see how I can do my job better and how the world is definitley a shade of grey. My ethics class made me ask those questions that you never want to consider, but it definitley made me better and for that I am grateful.
That was definitely the most comfortable classroom I have been in so far! Also, I liked ethics because it reminded me of why I was attracted to journalism in the first place... "to tell the story of human experience boldly, even when it is unpopular to do so."
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