History and journalism are very dependent on each other. Journalism is not only how we learn about history but also how we remember history.

In our book “Mightier Than The Sword” by Rodger Streitmatter it gives a list of ten methods that the news media has used while helping to shape our country.

The two traits I found most relevant were “The news organizations that have influenced important events have been willing to set the agenda” and “Journalists who have stood up to the countless villains in American society have often placed themselves in harm’s way”.

I found the first one to be the most accurate especially coming out of an election year. This past year, 99% of the things I learned about the candidates came from all different news sources. How and what the news presented formed my opinions.

The entire time I was reading about the second trait I mentioned, all I could think about are the devastating stories of journalists traveling to places such as Syria to report back to our country and losing their lives.

Journalists are very brave people who do much more for our country than we realize. After taking Journalism 200 I have a new appreciation for journalists and view them comparable to police officers.

In many cases, like we read in our book, journalists put themselves and their lives on the line for the better of our country.

If we didn’t have the system of journalism and the journalists we have today, our country and our history could have been completely rewritten.

Citizenfour is a movie about a woman named Laura who was creating a documentary on the 9/11 terrorist attacks and what could have led to it. She then received an eerie email from someone by the name of Citizenfour in the government intelligence community informing her that everything she does is being monitored by the US. Laura decided to meet with them and goes to Hong Kong to discover it is really Edward Snowden, a former CIA worker who revealed some of the United States’ most kept intelligence secrets. When his identity is revealed, he is threatened with prosecution in the United States and gets his passport banned so he gets stuck in Moscow. Laura meets him again in Russia further discussing US intelligence programs but are much more careful this time. They only communicate by writing back and forth on paper and afterwards are shown tearing the paper to shreds. I think this movie was an example of just how far journalists will go to get the best story they can. Laura went to Hong Kong to meet a man she had just gotten an interesting email from to learn more for her story.

Shattered Glass opens with the main character, Stephen Glass talking about being a journalist, “It’s true, Journalism is hard work, everybody’s under pressure, everybody’s grinding to get the issue out. Nobody’s getting any sleep, but you are allowed to smile every once in awhile.” The movie goes from that scene into Glass going back to his high school journalism class where he shares he now works for The New Republic. After writing a story on young Republicans at a Conservative conference, Glass admits to “making assumptions” in his story but promises the rest is all accurate. As the movie goes on, Glass writes a story about a teenage hacker that is published in The New Republic and many people become skeptical. After not being able to provide any sources Glass admits he wasn’t at the hacker convention. However, his just suspended him and Glass was told once again to only report the truth from now on. It wasn’t long after that when his boss, Chuck found out from a fellow writer than Glass has a brother from Palo Alto who must have pretended to be the hacker. Glass is fired from The New Republic. A receptionist makes a great point when she said “Pictures would have prevented this. You can’t make up fake characters if you have pictures of them.” Which is a very interesting point. The movie then ends with Glass sitting with his lawyer while his past employer reads off a list of his titles asking Glass to speak up if any those stories weren’t fabricated. Silence. Glass admitted that 27 of his 41 stories were at least partially or all made up. While watching Shattered Glass, I thought of Janet Cooke the whole time, the journalist who lied about a child drug addict that we learned about.

All the President’s Men was a cool movie for me to see because Watergate is something I have of course always heard about it but never knew a lot about. A Watergate office complex security guard was working the night shift and found a door that was unlocked. The intruders were five men who were caught and arrested. The Washington Post sent a journalist to the courtroom to get on the story. It is discovered that the five men all have CIA ties. Once the two Washing Post reporters put a story together, they were told it wasn’t good enough yet and to keep going. Then, there is a creepy scene of one of the reporters meeting with a government official. It was hard for me to understand what the man meant with his words at that time but he said “Watergate was to protect the covert operation” and then the conversation ended with him saying “Your lives are in danger”. After this, the reporter goes to his partner and types on a typewriter “Deep Throat says our lives are in danger. Surveillance Bugging.” With the journalists conducting more research they discover the Watergate burglars were involved in breaking the law by contributing illegal money to Nixon’s CPR, Committee to Reelect The President. Once again, the reporter’s editor pushes them to go deeper with their work. The movie ends with the reporters typing out their full story as Nixon is being sworn into his second term. Once the story is out, Nixon and his administration’s abuse of power was revealed to the world. As the movie shows, Nixon resigns and the new president is inaugurated. Similar to Spotlight, I think All the President’s Men goes to show how important sources are to creating an important story.

Spotlight is a movie I have heard people raving about time and time again so I was excited to have an excuse to finally see it. I found the way it was set up very interesting. It was set up to take place in 2001 but was investigating events from the 70s. What makes it even more interesting is that it’s based on true events. The movie starts with the editor of a newspaper retiring in Boston. After a team of 4 investigative journalists, called Spotlight from the newspaper read a column about a lawyer claiming that the Cardinal of Boston knew of a priest who sexually abused children and hadn’t done anything to stop it, Spotlight started investigating. After tons of research, the team figures out that there is a serious problem with priests sexually abusing children and the church covering it up. They found it was going on throughout all of Massachusetts and not just Boston. The journalists began to come in contact with victims who were then grown men. However, then 9/11 happened and the team had to slow down on the investigation. However, more documents were revealed with more evidence that the Cardinal knew and did not do anything so they decided to run the story. There was such an intense scene of the Boston Globe trucks going out to deliver the paper with Spotlight’s story on the front cover. That scene is followed by the Spotlight room’s phones ringing nonstop with more victims stepping forward. In December 2002, Cardinal Law resigned and Spotlight paved the way for many more scandals to be uncovered in many more cities around the world. Spotlight was an amazing film that proved just much good journalism can do for our society.

Last night I attended te United Minority Relief workshop on photojournalism in regards to the Syrian crisis and refugees specifically. I learned a lot and found it very interesting. The part of the night I found most interesting was when photos by journalists were compared to photos by refugees themselves. Journalists usually use a “poster child” or focus on one person or thing to make you feel whereas refugees don’t try to get the perfect shot. Refugees takes pictures of unposed action. Personally, I think the refugees photos are more powerful because although the journalist’s pull at your heart strings, the refugee’s make it possible for you to feel like you are there in it, which is even more powerful.