Well here we are. The semester is coming to a close and this is the final blog post for Ethics. This is the time of the semester to look back and think of all of the things we’ve learned.
Going into this course, I didn’t really think I’d learn all that much to be completely honest. I had a pretty solid grasp of morals and ethics and thought that there wouldn’t be very many interesting things to learn. I was absolutely proven wrong.
I really enjoyed the case studies, maybe not the process of getting them written, but researching and hearing the other groups’ cases was really interesting to me.
I learned that there are so many different situations in the Ad and PR world where ethics come into play that I would never have thought of. And I never really thought about companies having to react and respond to consumers being the ones acting unethically. I enjoyed seeing how these companies handled situations, some much better than others.
I think the case studies were a great way to get us critically thinking about the ethics that go into decision making within agencies and companies. It made me think about how I would have reacted in those situations, and at the beginning of the semester I didn’t realize how little I had to go off of.
Before this course, I had taken a Sociology of Morality class, so I had heard of some of the ethical theories that we talked about in class, but there were a lot more than I expected. And learning about those theories played an important role in getting our case studies done, so I learned a ton just by researching for those.
Another thing I learned is that there is absolutely a difference between morals and ethics. Before, I might have thought they were almost interchangeable. I knew there was a difference, but I figured it was such a small difference that it didn’t really matter.
I think that one of the big things I learned this semester was how to work in a group with several leader personalities. It was pretty rough at times, but we were able to figure out a dynamic of working together that worked out well for us by the second case study. That is something I’ll take away and absolutely use in the future. Not every person I work with in the future is going to be easy to work with, and that’s ok.
I will also definitely use the decision making skills I learned in this class. I make decisions now, and I’ll have to make decisions in the future that will be determined by the ethical standards I learned in class.
I am glad this class was a required course because it made me think differently about things I thought I already knew all about. Thank you to Professor Bufkins for a great semester!
