(1) The most important ethical lessons I've learned in this course

This course has really opened my eyes to a variety of ethical lessons, but two stuck out to me the most. The first is the issue of fabrication and plagiarism. Watching Shattered Glass astounded me. Before this class, I knew plagiarism existed. In high school, we always had to submit our papers to an online site. The site searched your paper and then compared it with sites found all over the web, to see if there was any overlap. But I had never really thought about plagiarism in the newsroom. To me, that was just something that you would never do. Watching the movie about Stephen Glass opened my eyes to the fact that sometimes these things do happen. Sometimes a person just completely abuses power and trust and can get away with it for a long time. I'm a candidate for The Daily Collegian this semester, am taking six classes, and have a genetic condition that causes me pain the majority of the time. There are times when I have a paper due, a sore back, and I'm fifteen minutes away from my deadline, and still haven't had a source call me back. It's so frustrating, and of course, it would be easier to just type something up that would fit perfectly with my story, attribute it to a random John Smith, and call it a day. But I could never imagine actually doing that. It's incredible to me that people like Stephen Glass exist, and this class really opened my eyes and taught me to be aware and careful.

The second lesson I learned was the importance of avoiding conflicts of interest. Our case study focused on sources and what happens when interests can become murky. Our case study was about two sources that originally were just helping each other. Their relationship quickly progressed, and they started a romantic affair while still working with each other on a reporter-source basis. The two faced serious consequences from their action. The woman stepped down from her job at her paper, and the man was removed from the running for a political position. As a reporter, the way you get your story is through sources. It's important to have good, trusting relationships with sources, in order to have the best story you can have. But you can have a strong work relationship with a source without letting it get out of hand.

(2) The course's impact on my future career and life

I want to be a broadcast journalist. I want to travel and report and be a trusting source of information. This class taught me that as a journalist, my number one priority is to the audience and the truth. I want to be on CNN. But even if I am at a small town news station getting people coffee and somehow end up on air reporting on a silly insignificant story, I'm still going to be true to the facts. I'm going to always put the audience and truth first, ahead of any and all personal feelings. This course really helped me see that and cement it in my mind for my future.

(3) When I first started in this course, I was wary. It was at nine in the morning on a Monday, and to me, learning about ethics did not seem like the most thrilling subject - there's right and there's wrong - what more do I need to learn? But as this course progressed, I realized that it's not that simple. There are ins and outs and judgment calls to be made, and things were definitely not as black and white as I thought them to be. However, while the course material proved to be more interesting than expected, my favorite part of this course had to have been you, Dr. Z. You are a wonderful professor who appears to genuinely care about his students. We all could have easily just been random faces in a classroom to you, but you took the time and effort with us. You know our names and you know things about our lives. You pushed us positively, rewarded us when deserved, and constructively criticized us when it was necessary. I really enjoyed this course and you as a professor, and genuinely hope to have you again in the future. Thanks for everything!

Clifton Graves: Blog 5- "Reflections on this Course"  

I have learned a variety of ethical lessons in Comm 409.  The first ethical lesson that jumped out at me was fabrication and plagiarism.  Even though I am no longer a journalism student, ethical dilemmas will follow me for the rest of my life.  When it comes to fabrication, it can always be tempting regardless of the workplace.  Truthfully, before this class, I never even heard the term fabrication before.  The meaning behind fabrication is so powerful to me, and the section we did on Stephen Glass will always remind me the severity fabrication has.  I have always known not to make up things and pass them on as genuine, but this class reassured my ethical duty to be as honest as I possibly can in whatever I am doing.  In regards to plagiarism, as long as I can remember being a student, I have been reassured to not plagiarize.  I've always known not to plagiarize and take credit from other authors, but it was never pushed on me like it was in this class.  The lectures we had about plagiarism, and how critical plagiarism can have on an academic career were influential.  In addition, the measures one has to go to make sure one doesn't plagiarize had an effect on me.  One has to be so careful about every thought or idea that isn't your own and make sure you give credit where credit is due.  Plagiarism and fabrication had a great effect on me and are crucial ethical lessons that everyone should follow. 

Another ethical lesson that stood out for me was conflicts of interest.  I think regardless of one's profession, one should avoid conflicts of interest at all times.  All conflicts of interest does is question someone's credibility and integrity.  To me, the most compelling aspect of conflicts of interest is each situation is open for interpretation.  I learned that conflicts of interests will arise throughout someone's life, but each situation needs to be carefully analyzed to avoid conflicts of interest.  Looking into the future, I believe this course has impacted me for the better.  In whatever profession I start, I know that making the ethical decision is the correct decision.  In my opinion, being ethical and making the right decision is one of the most respectful attributes somebody can have.      

Overall, I really enjoyed this course.  I enjoyed coming to class, even though it was early, and sitting through the lectures.  Dr. Z does a great job interacting with the class and does a great job presenting the information.  I also liked how Dr. Z would call on people randomly.  I thought it was nice to keep people on their toes and allow people that normally don't volunteer to have their voices heard.  In addition, I really enjoyed the real life examples that were used in class.  Real life examples are beneficial and provide important lessons.  A couple things I didn't like about the class were people that came in late all the time. Coming in five minutes late is one thing, but coming in late by twenty to thirty minutes is ridiculous.  They're missing half the class but receive the attendance points.  Just to be clear, things happen and being that late could come up rarely, but for someone that continues to be that late should not receive points.  Also, I am not a big fan of group papers.  I don't think they enhance learning and it makes the paper more difficult.  I was fortunate to have a great group that always did their best to meet, so it wasn't a problem for me, but in general I don't think group papers are that beneficial.  I think working in groups is important however.  I thoroughly enjoyed the group presentations and learned a great deal from them.  I think solely doing a group presentation could be better.  This may not be able to fit in the syllabus, but I think one solution could be having two or three people do a paper individually on the same type of case study, then after the paper is complete combine the similar case studies in a group and have them collaborate on a group presentation.  That's just my opinion and wanted to mention it.  Overall, the class is awesome.  I'm so glad that I added the class and it turned out to be a great decision.   

I learned two of the most important ethical lessons throughout the span of this course. The first lesson I will never forget was that in journalism, being right is far greater than being first. That being said, one must focus on having a correct story rather than be the first one to post something. The second lesson that I will never forget is that you have to love what you do. Enthusiasm for what you do I more of a reward than an actual paycheck.

Throughout the course we discussed many case studies that showed situations of unethical journalism. In each case it seemed the issue behind each poor act was due to an underlining cause. That cause was the pressure of being the first one to capture the story. This idea of being the first one has and always will be an issue with journalism that I will have to learn to accept. Penn State alum Sara Ganim advised other young journalists in her Foster Foreman speech, that it was always better to have a correct story than to have the first story. I took this advice to heart for I know when I am bombarded with stress in my future news writing job, I will need to remember this.

I will also need to remember that you have to love what you do. As simple as it sounds, it was the most powerful lesson I got out of the course. The numerous examples of journalists fighting to get the right story taught me that you have to love and believe in your career because that's what separates journalism majors from the rest. Unlike other majors, we realize there may not be that much money in our futures but it's the love of the career path that separates us. I feel as though this class has prepared me for dealing with that if and when the challenge of choosing money over what I enjoy doing is thrown at me.

I am 20 years old and although I am not sure exactly what the future holds for me, I do plan to take the education I received through this class with me. The class as a whole taught me about real life situations that go on in modern journalism. I enjoyed the many speakers I got to listen to for class credit and if I had not been forced to go to them I would have never been inspired by their lectures.  I also sought enthusiasm in being taught by such an experienced professor. Most of my classes I have taken in the past won't be as memorable as this one for you truly love what you do.  

        Since the very beginning, this class has caused me to make innumerable ethical considerations dealing with a variety of subject matters.  Two of the more important, I feel, are the considerations we must make regarding publishing information about a person with respects to a family's wishes and those based on the dissemination of shocking material.  

As journalists, it is our job to report on stories that may be less than flattering to the subject they are about; however, at the same time we must consider the implications that this may have on the families and loved ones of the individual.  For example, depending on the information, the family of a deceased man may request to a news organization that any defamatory information found may not be published.  In a case such as this, the decision should not consist of a journalists opinion, but rather one of the checklists we learned about in class.  This includes objective questions such as: Is this information useful?, Who is going to be affected by this information?, Are there any alternatives?, etc.  

These same concepts hold relatively true in the case of showing images, video, or audio to an audience that can be described in any way as shocking and unsavory.  Dr. Zhong, as we will remember, showed news report during class that decided to air a 911 call in which a woman was trapped inside her vehicle and eventually drowned.  Nearly the entire call was broadcast to the audience despite its graphic nature and and  the potential damage it may cause those tuned-in.  In this instance, a checklist would also be beneficial.

In my case, I wish to be involved in advertising and design so one may assume that these ethical principles do not apply to me; however I would argue the opposite.  It is true I will not likely be writing stories about murders and suicides I will regardless be creating media that, depending on the subject matter, could be perceived as questionable or inappropriate.  COMM 409 has confronted me with numerous ethical dilemmas which, if I am being honest, have caused me to reflect in a way that I am not usually accustomed.  Many of the decisions I make in day-to-day life have thus far been in either the black or white category in which it is easy to choose one over the other, with this class however, it forces me to examine the gray area in which making decisions isn't as easy.

In my opinion, this class is structured very well and as a result is immensely effective.  We are taught from the real-world examples, which in many ways, prepares us as students to face the real-world conflicts we will inevitably encounter as opposed to mere hypothetical situations.  This class dealt with subject matters that transcended the textbook and examined the world as a whole.  Dr. Zhong's lectures continue to be thought-provoking and insightful.  He actively encourages us to take part in the discussions, and sometimes even goes as far as to force the more quiet individuals into making their voice heard.  I was most impressed by the fact that throughout the semester, the tone of the class has been uncommonly mature and civil.  No subject matter was taboo, and even the most brash comments were handled with tact and understanding through discussion. Overall, I feel the class as a whole is successful, I can't honestly say there is an aspect of this class I would change.  I thoroughly enjoyed this class and feel that I am more ethically sound as a result.  Thank you for all of your help Dr. Zhong, it is professors like you with your level of dedication that make this university so great. 

Throughout this fall 2012 semester, I fall as though Comm 409 has taught me a lot about ethics in regards to the field of journalism.  I believe one the most important and prominent lesson I learned while taking this course is online journalistic ethics because of the rapid pace technology is changing. I am an intern for a fantasy football website, and until I took this class I was always unsure of how ethics on the web differ from ethics in traditional forums. I learned, however, that the ethical principles of journalism do not change when a journalist publishes a piece on the internet. Not only did I learn that ethical principles do not change while on the web, but in some cases journalists need to be even more careful. This includes places like Twitter, where journalists can be quick to jump the gun on a story without confirming it to be true, such as Onward State's coverage of the death of Joe Paterno.

Although I learned a variety of interesting facts about ethical principles on the internet, I learned much more than that while in this class. We covered important ethical codes such as Kant's Categorical imperative and many others. This ethical codes taught me not only how to be ethical in the field of journalism, but also to be ethical in all facets of life. Learning about ethical principles while on the web, and ethical model's such as Kant's Categorical imperative were not even close to the only thing I learned in this class, but they stuck out the most.

I feel that this course has indeed had a significant impact on my future not only for my career, but for my life in general. However, specifically to my career, this class has taught me the correct way to conduct business in the world of journalism. When I came into this class I thought it was going to be easy and I thought that right and wrong would always be very clear. Boy was I wrong. Many of the topics we discussed in class I could not figure out what was ethical and what was unethical, so I'm glad I took the class so that in my future career I will now be able to make the correct ethical decisions when reporting a story.

As far as the course goes, I think Dr. Zhong does a great job of teaching his students. The thing I like most about the class, and that I think is most effective about Dr. Zhong's teaching is that he incorporates the class in all of his lectures and looks to get the students involved in a discussion instead of blandly speaking for 50 minutes. The only thing I did not like about the course was the lack of incentive to do the readings. I understand that it is a student's job to do the readings whether or not they get points for it, but I think that if there were pop quizzes every once in a while more students would read.

Throughout the course of the semester I've been exposed to many areas of ethics that are vital to my success as a journalist. One the concepts that stood out to me was Conflict of Interest because since I want to be a sports journalist I have biases toward certain teams as I have grown up following the field. Which means  that if I'm writing an article it will probably be difficult a first because if I'm watching a team I hate I will be forced to give them praise if its earned, even if personally I wished the team/ player woke up in a roadside ditch. Also another reason I found conflict of interest intriguing is because if a reporter is asked to cover a natural disaster for instance, they are no longer a reporter because they are involved and not the unbiased outside eyes. This was evident during Hurricane Katrina when reporters were asked to cover the tragedy but at some points had to help out with the assistance of those in need. Thus taking away the purity of it being a news story but more of writing about a personal experience.

Another aspect of the class that really stood out to me was learning about how fragile a journalist/ reporter has to worry about the Right to Privacy to their sources. The reason I found this interesting is because it's one of those areas of journalism that is strictly up to the thought process of the journalist and if the harm caused by the person would outweigh the public's everyday need for information. This is something that when I eventually take it to the professional level that I'd have to be really careful with because I'm the kind of person who would probably let my curiosity get the best of me and probably do things I shouldn't to obtain information for a story. But at the same time if I did do that I could get in trouble for intrusion, appropriation or putting the person in a false light which would only pose problems for me.

All together this course had provided me with many of the tools necessary to be successful journalist in the field and in the newsroom. By being able to learn about the great journalists such as Stephen Glass who went from the wall of fame to wall of shame in the world of journalism simply because he didn't follow the basic ethics of a journalist. Also the group case study presentations because until this course I didn't realize how common controversy is in the media until this course. But in my opinion I feel the only thing that could make the course better is for the quizzes to more out of the class lectures then  out of the book. Or base the lectures more off the material that will be on the quizzes because I felt that since not much of the information from lectures were on the quizzes, after a while I figured there would be no reason to be attentive in class. But otherwise I very much enjoyed the course and it was huge help gathering the tools needed to become a successful journalist. 

                One of the most important ethical lessons I've learned from this course is in dealing with conflicts of interest.  It's a problem with consequences that could severally damage someone's career and one in which the rules are not directly cut into stone. The only way to keep yourself out of a situation involving conflicts of interest in to be fully educated on different scenarios of conflicts of interest and this class helped teach that.

                The lesson of ethical decision in photojournalism also was important to me. I'm a photographer and am studying photojournalism. When approaching a topic or scene where you plan to shoot photos, it is not only important to make sure everything with your photography gear is in order, but one must also remember the proper and ethical ways to approach the situation; what to shoot versus what not to shoot, when one should lend a hand and get involved.

                Honestly, I feel like this is one of the most rewarding courses that I've taken. This is because of the curriculum as well as you're teaching style. Ethics is not only a part of the media and news, it's a building block of a good society. The lessons I've learned in the course will stay with me throughout my future years. Although my specific area of study is "visual communications," I plan on working in creative advertising in my future. Plenty of ethical decisions are involved in advertising, especially in print ads dealing with fashion. See some of American Apparel's and United Colors of Benetton advertisements for example.

                As noted above, this is one of the most rewarding and enjoyable classes I have taken at Penn State. The only thing I can actually complain about is the time of day I had to attend, but that of course you had nothing to do with. One of my favorite parts of the course is cliché but it had to be the absence of exams. I know exams are a fine way to test a student's knowledge but I've found that most students usually cram for exams and never really retain the information.  You use blogs to create a lot of the grade points for the course, and I like that. I like to be creative and the blogs are a good way to both express my creativity and knowledge of the topic. You are very good at emailing and reminding us students of what is going on in the course. That is incredibly beneficial. Your case studies in the lectures are very helpful in understanding the information involved in the lectures because you put it in a "real world" sense.

                You're an excellent professor, one of the finest I've had in my history at this place. Keep doing big things. This university earns its solid reputation in academics because of people like you.

Before this semester, I did not know much about the world of journalism and the ethical situations journalists find themselves in on a regular basis, and quite frankly I did not care.  I took this class as a requirement for my communications major, and I was not very interested in journalism at the time.  I remember on the first day of class I was extremely intimidated of Dr. Z and I told a friend that this was going to be a hard class.  While I did not need to be intimidated by Dr. Z, I was right about the class being more difficult than I had anticipated. 

There have been a great deal of ethical situations that we have taken a look at this semester, but I would say that the two most important ethical lessons I learned this semester are to never alter any information in any way, and to never accept anything from a source. 

The example in which the reporters sped up the iceboats to make them look like they were moving faster was an interesting one to me, because originally I had thought that it wasn't a big deal.  Who cares if they speed up the iceboats?  It doesn't hurt anyone, right?  Wrong.  I learned that even the smallest detail that is changed in an image, video, or information takes away from the truth of the work.  This causes employers, sources, and audiences to ask, "If the reporter is willing to change this, what else will they change?  What else have the changed in the past?"  This takes away from the credibility of not only the reporter, but also the news organization as a whole. 

Before this course, I knew that it was not good to take a bribe or gift from any type of news contact.  What I did not know is that even the appearance of a conflict of interest is a major problem.  I did not realize the extent to which a reporter should keep their distance from a source, meaning they couldn't even accept a flight to the location in which they are reporting.  I thought that the flights for reporters were always paid for by whoever is being covered.  While this may not cause a conflict of interest in reality, the appearance of it could come off the wrong way to audiences. 

This course will definitely change the way in which I will go into the career world.  I did not know half of the things that were not acceptable within the world of journalism, and if I did not learn them now I may have been caught in a difficult situation and made the wrong decision.  I truly feel that because of this class, I am better prepared to go about my career in an honest and ethical manner with an understanding of the consequences of my actions.  I now know how not to become the next Stephen Glass. 

It was a good idea to show us the film, Shattered Glass, because it immediately showed us what a slippery slope it can be when caught in an ethical dilemma.  The material was interesting, but redundant at times.  It seemed that we went over very similar concepts multiple times throughout the semester, which could have been condensed into fewer units.  The case study presentations were fun because it gave us a chance to meet people in the class and work together.  While the project was interesting, it seemed that they were graded harsher than expected.  I think that the expectations for the papers need to be very clearly explained, and students should not write a combined paper.  It is just too difficult to combine three to four different styles of writing and thinking together into a fluid argument. 

The bonus opportunities throughout the semester are very generous and greatly appreciated.  Dr. Z was very accessible to students throughout the semester, which is helpful to know at a big school like Penn State. Overall this was an interesting class, and showed me that there is a lot more to deal with in journalism than just knocking on doors and writing stories.