From a young age, people learn to treat others with kindness. As people grow older, gray areas crop up as situations become complicated and the right choice is blurred. Knowing the difference between right and wrong, or ethics, and how to critically think are important skills and can be used in both professional and personal settings.
Ethics vary in different societies and can come down to decision making, but knowing how to treat people and finding simplicity in complex situations is still needed. Taking an ethics course is something everyone should consider.
There are different types of ethics courses people can take that focus more closely on certain professions. The particular course I am taking, JOUR 3200, focuses mostly on journalism and its ethical standards. This course goes into how to treat the subjects of a story, interviewees, how to write a story correctly and other topics that focus around the media. It analyzes different media professions' ethical standards for a just society.
All these skills, which focus on journalism, can be used in everyday life as well. It all comes down to doing the right thing for society and not looking at people as ways to get things but as who they are, an idea which comes from Immanuel Kant and remains useful today. Looking at all humans as individual people all deserving of respect seems so simple, yet sometimes people don’t follow this, and understanding its importance can be beneficial.
Knowing the details of ethics can have various positive effects. People can make decisions with critical thinking and considering how others could benefit or be negatively impacted by a situation. Ethics focuses on society but can also connect to individual people’s morals. It can help in many cases to look at things from the perspective of someone else or another group. Ethics help people know how to treat others, even those different from themselves.
Ethics also encourages and pushes for greater critical thinking. People need to analyze what they hear and think about the possible background of a situation or question more deeply. This can be used when hearing a story or reading something in the news. Think about context and ask questions. It is important to not jump to conclusions about an individual or their situation.
Knowing ethical codes and standards can also be used as a defense mechanism. This means people can see certain rights, terms of consent and protections they might have. People can know when someone is taking advantage of them, and understanding this means they can protect themselves intellectually. It is important to look deeper into what rights people have and when others are stepping over an ethical line.
Overall, ethics are how society decides what is correct and what is wrong. It is how we understand the treatment of other people. Consider signing up for an ethics course to analyze how people are meant to treat others and the world.
Kyra Dapore is a junior studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to talk more about it? Let Kyra know by emailing her at kd364521@ohio.edu.
