Page One

After finals, I had my students in Intro to Journalism watch the documentary Page One while I graded.  I've seen the movie dozens of times, but a lot of what it talked about resonated with what we have been talking about in both the Social Role class as well as my Editorial Writing class.  The documentary, although a bit dated now, follows David Carr and the Media Desk at the New York Times.  It primarily focuses on the changing landscape in the newspaper industry, but touches on many other topics that relate to journalism.  One of those being a journalist's responsibility.  I think that this ties into what we have been discussing in Social Role this week about objectivity.  Several times throughout the documentary they mentioned the arrogance that many feel the New York Times carries.  I believes this ties into objectivity, because the reporters from the NYT have to write objectively and not let their role or their job get to their heads.  It also means that the readers of the NYT have to read the paper objectively and form their own opinion.  The Judith Miller fiasco proves that reading too much into a reporter's story can lead to disastrous things.  In addition to touching on objectivity, the documentary also shows students the weight that the NYT and the media carries.  Having grown up without reading the newspapers, my students often do not understand the importance that a paper like the NYT has.  Page One speaks volumes to what the social role of newspapers was and is becoming today.  Overall, the documentary reminded me of the importance of newspapers as well as the power they hold.