This ethics class it the third ethics
class that I have taken at UNT. While this
one focuses mainly on the journalism and advertising side of things, my others
focused on media ethics and the other with race and gender. I now feel as if I know all sides of the
ethical stratosphere for the media world, and it is very helpful to know what
to do and what not to do when I go on to be a professional in this field.

Another
part of this class that I really enjoyed was the second blog post we did, which
was over ethics in advertising. I find
it interesting because I do more of the PR side of journalism, and so when I
can research case studies on advertising, I feel like I learn a lot. It is a little insane to me to know how much
some companies get away with their advertising.
The one I mainly talked about was American Apparel, and their
objectification towards women and promiscuous advertising. I remember reading
articles about the owner of American Apparel and he has always caused trouble because
of his perversion.

One of
the “oh-wow,” moments that I had came from when we talked more about the law in
media. I think that one thing we forget
as journalists or PR people is the fact that you have to deal with a lot of
legal issues as well, and you have to be very careful about what you put out
there. We focused mostly on libel and
slander, and while researching for blog, I realized just with one simply
statement, you can start an entire legal battle that can cost you. It is a little intimidating thinking about
all that can go wrong, but it is also good to learn about it, so that we know
not what to do when we work in this field.
It seems that you also learn a lot about just how protective people are
of their trademarks and copyright material.
The most shocking one was when Starbucks tried to sue that other coffee
logo even though it really did not look that similar. However, when a company like Starbucks, with
its’ wide reach, doesn’t like something, it is a lot easier for them to sue
another company and win. I have always
found the legal side of media ethics to be the most interesting, and it was
nice to hear about cases on the journalism and advertising side of things.
The
most important thing I learned that can help me in my profession was mainly the
law part, but really all of what we learned is most likely going to be used at
least once when I go on to be a professional.
Ethics is an important class for college students to take mostly, because
we haven’t fully worked in the professional environment yet, and if we can go
into a job with a code of ethics already learned, we can be more
successful.