Spring 2025  |  JOUR 3771 Section 001: Media Ethics (51598)

Instructor(s)
No instructor assigned
Class Component:
Lecture
Credits:
3 Credits
Grading Basis:
Student Option
Instructor Consent:
No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:
In Person
Class Attributes:
UMNTC Liberal Education Requirement
Delivery Mode
Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
 
01/21/2025 - 05/05/2025
Mon, Wed 09:45AM - 11:00AM
UMTC, East Bank
Enrollment Status:
Open (0 of 30 seats filled)
Also Offered:
Course Catalog Description:
Citizens expect journalists to separate fact from falsehoods, opinion and propaganda. But is it possible for journalists to be unbiased and objective? Advertisers are expected to push products. But is it acceptable to mislead by exaggerating what the product can do? Public relations professionals must protect a company's brand. But what should they do when a company becomes entangled in a scandal? This course examines the ethical and unethical ways that communicators respond to such challenges, and uses real-life examples to identify values and principles that can lead to sound, ethical decisions under the most difficult circumstances. Learn about ethical communication on all platforms, from television to social media to newspapers and magazines. Build a solid foundation for your own ethical thinking that can guide you as a student and as a professional communicator.
Class Description:
This course will help students build a foundation for making ethical decisions under the kinds of difficult circumstances that journalist and strategic communication professionals face every day. Most of our discussion will focus on processes we could use to make ethical judgments. Students will learn ethical principles and standards that could be applied in ethical decision-making. The class will study actual cases drawn from many media sources. Students will be expected to participate by presenting their own examples of ethical dilemmas found in the media. That means students should be reading the newspapers and staying abreast of news every day. It also means that attendance and class participation is essential in this course. Just showing up in this class is not good enough.
View full course profile here: JOUR 3771
Workload:

Pages of reading/week: 20

Pages of writing/semester: 15

Number of exams: 2

Number of papers: 2
Textbooks:
https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/51598/1253
Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
9 October 2015

ClassInfo Links - Spring 2025 Journalism & Mass Communicat Classes

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