History and journalism are connected in many ways. Journalism would not have gotten it’s start if it weren’t for history. Journalism’s purpose is to tell stories of all kinds of events, big or small, which are then archived and used for people to look back on, to learn about and to remember. If it weren’t for journalism, we would not have the same knowledge about events that happened because we would not have had real sources to comment on what they saw firsthand.  If we didn’t have these personal accounts of events, history would be full of false information. As Rodger Streitmatter stresses in his book, “Mightier than the Sword,” journalism not only played a huge role in recording the history of the country but also played a huge role in shaping it. I completely agree with this idea because history just would not have the importance that it has if it weren’t for journalism.

“All the President’s Men” is a movie that tells the story of one of the most important moments in journalism: the Watergate Scandal. Anyone who lived through the 70s knows about this story, as well as any student that takes a journalism class. This movie tells the story of two reporters from the Washington Post, Bob Woodward played by Robert Redford and Carl Bernstein played by Dustin Hoffman, that start digging deep into the attempted robbery at the Democratic Party Headquarters. Basically, they information leads them to find out that a member of the White House staff was linked to giving access to those robbers. I enjoyed the movie because it showed the persistence of the journalists and how much they dug to solve the case and it showed how high the stakes were for them. They went above and beyond the work of people who were actually supposed to be figuring out the Watergate Scandal and I just felt like it was a great showcase of truly amazing journalism. It is definitely an older movie, but for anyone interested in journalism, it’s a good one to watch.

The move “Shattered Glass” which came out in 2003, is another true story about a hotshot journalist named Stephen Glass who is played by Hayden Christensen who wrote for the New Republic Magazine. Essentially, he started gaining more and more popularity and one of his rivals started to get suspicious. The rival was Charles Lane played by Peter Sarsgaard. After doing some digging, he discovered that Glass had been fabricating many of his sources for these outrageous stories. In my opinion this film was fun to watch because it was upbeat, funny, intense and dramatic all in the same film. It was also wild to learn about a journalist that actually thought he could get away with fabricating many, many of his sources. I felt as though the acting was good, but I cannot say if he portrayed the real Stephen Glass in the proper way only because I don’t know much about the real story.

I have always been a big fan of documentaries. I love the grit and realness. That is why I chose to watch “Citizenfour.” This film, directed by Laura Poitras, gives the audience a chance to see an in-depth and up-close interview with Edward Snowden himself. The interview takes place in a hotel room in Hong Kong, and Snowden actually hands over classified documents about invasions of National Security. One of the most interesting concepts of this film for me was the Snowden contacted Poitras himself, under the name “Citizenfour” and this is how she was able to meet with him along with journalist Glenn Greenwald. The whole movie has a very eerie, creepy, secretive vibe to it. It makes you feel like you have to be very careful and pay attention almost. Glenn Greenwald does an amazing job with interviewing Snowden and I felt as though his journalism skills were great. The movie really made me think differently about the internet and media and even my cell phone. It can be scary to think that complete anonymity and invisibility are no longer achievable anymore. Overall, this movie was interesting, real, gritty and educational.

The movie “Spotlight” which came out in 2015, tells a story based on true events, of an investigative journalism team at the Boston Globe. This team consists of four journalists and is recognized under the name “Spotlight.” The movie stars big names like Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton, Liev Schreiber, Stanley Tucci and many more. In the early 2000s, this team of journalists decided to investigate more into known cases of child molestation within the Catholic Church. While investigating, they discovered over 80 priests that were accused of sexual assault to children in the Boston area. At first their goal was to expose these names, but then they decided to go after the Church itself and display how this was a top down issue. They mainly focused on how the Church system allowed for these priests to continue to be a part of the churches even when they knew about these accusations. After talking to victims and releasing an initial story, more and more victims came forward and they ended up writing more than 600 stories in 2002 about the scandal. I felt as though this movie did a good job at highlighting the work of investigative journalists. I felt like the acting was good and the story was relayed in a way that was interesting and mind blowing.

It’s the end of the semester, which means it’s unfortunately the end of Journalism 200. I’ve learned a lot over these past few months about how news has evolved, how to be a better journalist, and the rules and regulations that are set in place to ensure that journalists are able to report the best possible story, at the least possible cost, and obviously many more things. It has been interesting to truly realize the importance of news, but it’s unfortunate that it comes at a time where the journalism industry is losing momentum. In my opinion, traditional journalism that comes in the form of daily newspapers, may be dying, but journalism as a whole is not. In all actuality, it is evolving and changing. I believe that more people are able to access more stories that are diverse, full of content and appealing to many different kinds of people. The internet truly has given journalism a whole new meaning and has provided a place for more people to tell their stories. This may not be ideal for large news companies and there may be less of a need for hiring traditional journalists now, but the idea of journalism and spreading news is changing for the good in my opinion.

The story by reporter Joseph Shapiro of NPR titled, “National Panel Advises Judges On People Who Can’t Pay Court Fees,” is a follow up to a series NPR did in 2014 about how people end up in so called “debtors’ prisons.” This term refers to the people who don’t have the money to pay for court fines and fees.

This original series uncovered the fact that “in 1983, the US Supreme Court had ruled against the practice,” and that judges had no way to tell who was too poor to pay these fines and fees. In other words there was no standard that was set for judging that. This ignorance of the judges led them to tell these people to “pay with their veterans or welfare benefits, or told them to get money from a relative.”

As this article uncovers, some of the nation’s top judges have taken it upon themselves to stop sending impoverished people to debtors’ prisons. The National Task Force on Fines, Fees and Bail practices, created a “bench card” for judges to use. It gives judges instructions on who they can send to jail for this reason. It has set a guideline that the only people that can be imprisoned for not paying fines and fees are people that have enough money but refuse to pay. It also offers ideas on what to do about the people who don’t have the money to pay these fines and fees back.

Maureen O’Connor, the Chief of Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio and co-chair of the task force was quoted saying, “it’s constitutionally right and it’s also morally right.”

Just last year the Justice Department announced it was giving out “assistance grants to state and local courts.”

As Shapiro reports, this is one step in the right direction.

President Trump has made sure everyone knows he absolutely hates the media, except for those stories that praise him. In a recent news story by the New York Times titled, “Can Trump Change Libel Laws?” journalist Adam Liptak shares that POTUS was quoted saying he would “open up our libel laws so when they write purposefully negative and horrible false articles we can sue them and win lots of money.” There he goes again talking about lawsuits and making money.

For the readers who aren’t aware of what libel means, it is when a reporter or a person gives false information that could potentially hurt and damage someone’s reputation. Now, there are laws against libel for journalists and public figures have every right to sue, but as Liptak explains, it’s hard for them to win libel suits because they actually have to prove that something false was said about them that in turn, harmed their reputation.

Liptak explains to readers that President Trump actually can’t change libel laws because it “is a state-law tort, meaning that state courts and state legislatures have defined its contours.”

As a public figure, scrutiny and false statements are bound to come about every day. President Trump is the center of a lot of controversy and has the whole world watching him. It’s childish and weak of him to whine all the time about how the media makes “false” statements about him, because for the most part, they are right and he is wrong. So for this week, Media:1 and Trump: 0.

An article written by the Editorial Board of The New York Times, called “Crime and the Adolescent Brain,” establishes the importance of the juvenile court systems in different states across the United States. When the Supreme Court “banned capital punishment” for crimes that were committed by people under the age of 18, many states followed the decision and implemented systems that are meant to help the offenders change their lives through counseling and support. Not surprisingly, these systems have shown tremendous accomplishments in keeping offenders out of prison throughout their lives. Unfortunately, there are two states–New York and North Carolina, that automatically try anyone age 16 and up as an adult. As the NYT article states, the act of trying 16 year olds as adults is inhumane. It has been scientifically proven that the brain of a 16 year old is not fully developed which can explain certain behaviors. The article stresses the importance of revisiting this decision for the sake of young offenders that are going to be impacted tremendously. I too agree, that no 16 year old should be treated as an adult for a soft crime and thrown into an adult prison. I believe that it will impact them for their lives and the goal should be to help keep young offenders out of prison, instead of worrying about how “hard” or “soft” the punishment is.

When we were given this assignment, I knew right away that finding an article that uses social media sources would be easy. The first thing that came to mind for me was basically any article that had to do with President Donald Trump. The article I chose is titled “Trump Attacks New York Times Oscars Ad Before it Airs.” Like many other articles about Trump, a huge source for stories is his personal Twitter page (@realDonaldTrump). Trump has been notorious for posting his very candid opinions about basically everything on his account. This particular story was inspired by his tweet that completely attacked an ad that New York Times plans to air during the Oscars. It’s no secret that Trump despises the media and calls everything he dislikes “fake news”. So, this particular story was inspired by the tweet and then went on to explain how the White House most recently banned the New York Times and several other news outlets from attending an off-camera briefing with the press secretary. This journalist then used another one of his tweets to explain how he claimed he would not attend the White House Correspondent’s Dinner because as he reported, some news outlets said they would be skipping it. The article closed by putting into perspective how much it costs to air an ad during the Oscars. This is all just one example of how using social media can inspire articles as well as provide facts that just keep coming.