For the Record
Dean Wright on Ethics, Innovation and Values
Oscar special: Journalists on film
Dean Wright is Global Editor, Ethics, Innovation and News Standards. Any opinions are his own.
It’s Oscar time, and I’m again reminded of the debt Hollywood and journalists owe each other. Journalists supply Hollywood with great stories and Hollywood sometimes makes us look cool—or at least worth a couple of hours of time and the price of a ticket.
Put aside the fact that a number of Hollywood movies literally are made from the pages of journalism –“Saturday Night Fever,” “Dog Day Afternoon” and “Adaptation,” to name only a few, were all based on magazine stories. We journalists are also the very characters that Hollywood screenwriters sometimes love.
In addition to sometimes bringing out our cool factor—although, really, what aspiring reporter could resist Robert Redford’s corduroy suits in “All the President’s Men”? — Hollywood movies can illuminate the kind of ethical, moral and values issues that journalists have to deal with.
This year’s slate of Oscar nominees again includes a movie with journalism as its subject. “Frost/Nixon,” the film adaptation of the Broadway play about British journalist David Frost’s pursuit of the ultimate interview with disgraced former U.S. President Richard Nixon, is nominated for five Oscars.
So here is a completely arbitrary list of my top dozen movies about journalism that have something to say about the way we do our jobs–ethical or unethical, selfish or selfless. Aside from that, about the only thing they have in common is that they all were at least nominated for Oscars. I’ll also acknowledge that most of the films are U.S.-oriented, like the Oscars. So I want to especially encourage feedback and suggestions for films from all parts of the world. (A word of warning: There will be plot spoilers.)
The envelope, please.
Please accept some random thoughts upon stumbling across this blog posting:
Journalists apply their professionalism (doubtlessly to all degrees of candour c.f. Stephen Glass) to report facts to us through reporting media channels. With similar divergence to keeping true to the facts, the big screen has historically adapted a plethora of media related / journalism stories to challenge box office hits; nothing new.
What is interesting, however, is the contrary; when movies create real facts thereby feeding journalism. Indeed, many fictional stories are predecessors to subsequent real life events, bringing us to question whether the story inspired actionable blueprints and/or to marvel the author’s prophetic capabilities.
The abovementioned movie – Ace in the Hole – holds remarkable similarities to what has, is, and will transpire with the trapped Chilean miners.
Many will see cynicism in the similarities and try to pass judgement on the credibility of the operation. Others will refute its relevance to maintain the dignity of this human disaster and authenticity of this timely and successful rescue story. Despite differing opinions, Ace in the Hole provides an interesting ‘conversation piece’ about how a piece of 1950s American fiction resembles so closely to the current state of affairs in Chile 60 years later.
Journalism is constantly faced with ethical concerns of representing the truth. The question of whether journalism reports the truth or whether it creates the truth can be blatantly clear-cut but also extremely complex. This fine line comes face-to-face with the challenges of our era where facts are labelled ‘true’ as long as enough people accept them as such.
This debate however, should not impede journalism nor curtail the movie industry. Indeed, both nourish a much sought-after psycho-sociological need in our ever alienating society: ‘to confirm the life of others’; nothing new. Hence a blog entry and not a Pulitzer prize!
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