“It's true, journalism is hard work. Everybody's under pressure. Everybody grinds to get the issue out. Nobody's getting any sleep, but you are allowed to smile every once in awhile” (Stephen Glass). Have you ever wondered what it would be like to lose your career? Shattered Glass, the movie, is a true story of a young journalist that lost his job at the New Republic, when it was found that he had fabricated over half of his articles. For journalists like Glass, lies can be described as barriers where, there’s no way to get around them. These lies can become great obstacles and have the potential to ruin one's career. When analyzing the movie on this young writer’s story, one can clearly understand what lead to Stephen’s career demise. Through lying trends and holes in the editing process, Stephen Glass’s career quickly began and ended. …show more content…
These falsified stories helped him get ahead at his job, with other companies watching his “talent” closely. Unfortunately, Stephen Glass’ own ambition ended his career as a journalist and eventually prevented him from passing the bar exam. When watching this film, viewers can pick up on various lines that Stephen continuously repeats. In tense and nervous situations, Glass tends to blurt out “Are you mad at me?” In similar situations, when job offers from other magazines are brought up, Glass avoids the pending questions and replies, ¨Oh it’s probably nothing,” to his colleagues. Though seemingly unnoticeable to the New Republic, viewers of the film can easily read these
Devin Friedman is a creative storyteller who incorporates observant details in his writings, which makes the readers feel like as if they are part of the adventure. Devin attended the University of Michigan, and he was awarded as the winner of the Hopwood Contest. This contest was hosted by the university committee who appoints experienced judges and the Ann Arbor community to select winners in different writing divisions. In his recent years, Devin wrote for numerous publications such as The Best American Crime Writing, The Best American Travel Writing, The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, Esquire, People's Stories, and GQ. Out of the many articles Friedman has written in the past, “The Best Night $500,000 Can Buy,” “Famous People: James Franco,” and “The Unbearable Awkwardness of Being” are the ones I have chosen to read because of the interesting subject matters and the different writing styles.
Shepard, Alicia. “Deep Throat’s Legacy to Journalism”. NPR Books. 19 December 2008. Web. 14 November 2013.
Self-motivation and determination are two of the main ideals of being journalist. If a journalist does not have the desire to find and report a story, he has no career. A journalist depends on finding the facts, getting to the bottom of the story and reporting to the public, whether it’s positive or negative. Janet Malcom states in the book The Journalist and the Murderer, “Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible.” (Malcolm, 3) Her starting words speak volumes about “the Journalist and the Murderer” and the lessons that can be learned.
In the documentary film, Page One: Inside The New York Times, the inner world of journalism is revealed through journalists David Carr and Brian Stelter as the newspaper company The New York Times, struggles to keep alive within a new wave of news journalism. The film is dedicated to reveal the true inner mechanics of what modern day new journalists face on a daily basis and leaves the audience almost in a state of shock. It broadcasts news journalism as yes, an old school method of news generation, but it also highlights an important component that reveals the importance behind this “old school” methodology. We often think that progression always correlates with positive products, but the documentary insists that within the case of modern journalism, the new wave method is actually a detriment that can reap negative consequences.
Self is one’s own identity and social position. However, Morrie dislikes society and media’s influence on a person’s sense of self. The digital age has changed life course and patterns of interaction. There are more miscommunications and media has corrupted and dictated the definition of pop-culture. Media and pop-culture have taken over and have fabricated an image of what a perfect life is, which everyone has begun to believe is true. For example, Mitch dropped his ambition and passion of becoming a musician because he did not want to be viewed as a failure. He became a well-paid journalist so society will respect him. Becoming a well-paid journalist, however, took away from his family life and caused him to change from who he was before, a person Morrie misses. Morrie suggests that you should create your own “self”. Morrie teaches Mitch to “forget what culture says” (116) and forget the concept of looking glass self, which emphasizes the degree to which our own self-understanding depends on how others view us. This concept can be seen within Mitch. He works hard day and night to write a column that is up to his boss and society’s standards, but to find that it will not be published because the union he is under is on strike. Morrie notices Mitch’s lack of compassion for his job and wants Mitch to pursue an independent way of thinking. Looking glass self is a prime example of “SI” perspective because it shows how society has a huge hand in shaping someone. Morrie’s ideology is similar to Oscar Wilde’s idea of “be yourselves; everyone else is taken.” During, the O.J. Simpson trial Mitch understands the venomous part of media during the and realizes he is stuck between cultural norms. He decides that society does not define and that it is not necessary to follow the “ideal path does not need to follow the “ideal” path. Furthermore, this ideal
Stephen Randall Glass was an up and rising journalist who graduated from Penn in 1995 to later on join The New Republic as an editorial assistant. During his stay there, he was known for his remarkable articles throughout his career such as the “Hack Heaven” which was published in 1998. However, as his career as a journalist began to skyrocket, the articles he was putting out were fabricated and invented. With thorough investigation from Adam Penenberg, a reporter with Forbes magazine, he was able to point out the flaws and false sources from the remarkable article, “Hack Heaven”. Unfortunately, The New Republic were going to be heavily affected for releasing fictional news. To resolve the situation, Lane, the editor at The New Republic, had
The 21st century marks the crisis of journalism as the rise of social media and the oversaturation of news outlets for consumers has caused a steady decrease in viewership, especially in younger viewers, as well as the inevitable death of the traditional newspaper. According to Geoffrey Baym, the public has become increasingly dissatisfied with the quality of news mediums as the lines between news (public) and business interests are being increasingly blurred. This is due to major news network like NBC, CBS, or ABC turning their news programs into “infotainment”. The emphasis of these news programs are on entertainment rather than reporting on traditional current events and politics. Although traditional journalism is coming to a close, alternative methods of journalism have emerged. One such example is The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. While the main objective of the show is to entertain, increasingly more people are gathering their information about current events from satirical news programs like The Daily Show and late-night talk shows. The Daily Show establishes itself as a credible, alternative source of journalism by using satire to question figures of authority, critique current events by use of parody, and create a forum for discussion of subjects related to democracy.
In world where you are only as good as the next headline, Bob Woodward played by Robert Redford is an inexperienced journalist working for the Washington Post, who was selected to take on a burglary story pertaining to the five men caught at the Water Gate complex. Bob Woodward arrives at a local courthouse where the five men are standing trial, while going into his routine in seeking core information obtain detain for the story. He discovers that the men had used spy bugging devices in their burglary attempt and James McCord, one of the five men reveals to the judge that he recently left the CIA. A confession that ultimately connects him all the way to President Nix...
Overall, in the last few months of working in mock news days, I have learnt the true factors behind what we see on our television screens. It is a very narrow view on the world, and often a mixture of logistics and legislation prevent some news from even entering our televisions. I found that sometimes the most interesting and valuable of news topics is not picked in order to prevent things such as copycat behaviour and also because a person in unavailable. Broadcast journalism is heavily based on pictures for our viewers to be told the story, and that words are used just to enhance the story. Overall, I believe our mock news days have truly reflected what it is like to work in a real life broadcast environment, and the stress and pressures journalists work through in order to put news on our screens.
At the beginning of the movie, Stephen Glass, who is the narrator throughout the movie, speaks about how important it is that a journalist knows who he is writing for and what he is good at. This explains to an extent why he crossed the boundaries to write false articles simply because he knew what subjects would be able to engross the readers and he was good at doing that. Despite the fact that Stephen deliberately applied that perception in the wrong way, he was able to capture the minds of many readers at large with creative and funny stories and this capped his career. I must say I was impressed with how guileful Stephen Glass was in carrying out this act but was disappointed in the end when his excuses were extremely cynical. He should have been prepared to prove the accusations false knowing he wrote a couple of false articles. It was not quite sensible of him to write an article about a software company that exists without having sources to back it up. Although, he was skillful he was at writing lies, h...
Shattered Glass starring Hayden Christensen, Peter Sarsgaard, and Steve Zahn, is a movie based on a true story inspired by Stephen Glass. Stephen Glass was a fraudulent journalist based at The New Republic. In 1998 the editor, Chuck Lane, played by Peter Sarsgaard questioned if Glass’ stories were true facts or more for the reader’s entertainment.
In order to learn how glass fractures, we must first learn the composition of glass and the different types of glass. Glass is a hard, brittle, amorphous substance composed of sand (silicon oxides) mixed with various metal oxides. When sand is mixed with other metal oxides, melted at high temperatures, and then cooled to a rigid condition without crystallization, the product is glass (Saferstein, 2010). Glass can come in many different forms all of which can range from very brittle glass to bullet proof glass; the stronger the glass, the more ingredients are required and the more complex the process is.
To conclude, when public journalism is being practiced, a larger percentage of reports face an innumerable amount of issues that lie in their content, the journalists themselves, and their audience. What is being reported by professionals, traditional journalist, constitutes as “good journalism” because of their ability to maintain and provide accurate, unbiased reports, fulfill being a good neighbor and watchdog, while adjusting to our growing technological advancements with an newer and improved rapid reporting. Thus, traditional journalism holds the persisting dominance over their competitors, public journalism.
An argument can be made that Journalism is one of the very few professions in the world of media that is handled with some sort of dignity and pride. After reading “The Elements of Journalism” by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, I realized how important journalism is to each and every one of us. Whether you’re a writer or a reader, the back and forth exchange between provider and consumer is extremely important in pushing society forward. Journalism after all is designed to challenge society, promote new ideas and spark conversation between one another. Despite the positives of journalism, there are issues that exist within the profession that cannot be excused and cannot be ignored.
"Journalists and Social Media | The Changing Newsroom." The Changing Newsroom | New Media. Enduring Values. Web. 05 Dec. 2010. .