Adam Penenberg, a former Forbes Digital writer, who is depicted in the movie "Shattered Glass" as Stephen Glass's whistleblower, has his own take of another journalist's complaints about how journalists are reflected in movies. Penenberg, via a recent tweet: "Few things are as tiresome as a journalist complaining that movies don't reflect his own experiences in a newsroom."
What do you think? Read this New York Times article and post your comments here by Monday, 18 June.
Although I think Penenberg has a point, I think what he was trying to get at was that the creatice aspect of his work wouldn't come out in movies like it does on paper. That being said my personal stance on where I feel newspapers as a business is headed is not much different than where it is at now. I think this because people aren't going to want to pull up to their ipads, computers, latops, etc and read the news off a bright screen, well at least not everyone. There's something about holding a newspaper in your hands in the morning.
ReplyDeleteThie piece as great and offered a true understanding of a journalistic view of Hollywood film. The article illustrated this fantasy land for journalistic writers and how in movies journalists are rarely depeicted accurately whether it be less romantic or more romantic than reality delivers. Most films are about an extraordinary breakthrough that journalists follow a bread crumb and feverishly follow until fame is indeed theirs. That's not how it goes. It usually involves lot of typing, long days and ample amounts of gritty black coffee. The article depicts the tough tasks that journalists have to perform everyday and rarely is that affectively captured in film. The article proves that to be a true, successful journalist you must realize that movies are fantasized and that this field is non stop action, whether there is news to report or now.
ReplyDeleteLove the bread crumb analogy, Landon!
DeleteSimilar to other subjects that movies fail to depict correctly, journalism falls victim as well. This was a great article and I thought it was very well written, covering several aspects of the subject. One question I kept thinking about though, would anyone really want to see the life of a journalist via Hollywood film? Does Hollywood have to spice it up in order to make it sell?
ReplyDeleteThe goal to glamorize work is suitable and well-pleasing, especially to the worker. At the end of all that hard work, the ability to see your field of study depicted in such a glamorous way is what some people would brag about anyway. But for some, the glamorizing effects covers up the hard work they do and thus the hard work is not honored nor appreciated. Since entertainment is more celebrated than hard work, glamorizing journalists in the newsroom is an honorable thing from that perspective.
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