The Importance of Journalism
Journalism is important in America because it has helped ensure that justice is served for the public.
The purpose of journalism is to provide citizens with the information they need to make the most rational decisions about their lives, their communities, their societies, and their government. For the last couple of decades, the media has contributed to revealing crimes hidden from the public’s eye and bring many systems and figures to justice. This type of journalism is called watchdog journalism. The goal of watchdog journalism is to ensure that people in power are held accountable for their actions.
The movies “Spotlight” and “All the Presidents Men” are two movies that show examples of how this type of journalism has contributed to bringing many public figures to justice while also bringing awareness to the reporting. Both stories are essential to how journalism is produced today. Stories like the Spotlight crisis or the Watergate scandal take months to uncover and report. Reporters may spend a lot of months working on the story.
Watchdog journalism has often caused public figures and big organizations to accuse certain media networks of producing fake news. This tactic has been used to try and get the public to distrust the media. Accusing journalists of producing fake news is a threat to the country’s freedom of the press. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution protects free speech and free press in America. However, a free press is not guaranteed because of the government attacks and attempt to censor journalism such as preventing whistleblowing reports or calling content fake news.
Today in America, the country faces similar issues that both films “Spotlight” and “All the Presidents Men” reported on such the Me-Too movement and Donald Trump’s presidency.
More women are speaking out and reporting on how they were sexually harassed by a male figure in power such as Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, R. Kelly, and Brett Kavanaugh because of the Me-Too movement coverage in the media. As a result of the Me-Too movement, more women are speaking out when they are sexually abused, especially when they are abused by a supervisor or coworker. Journalists are helping promote the movement’s coverage similarly to how the Spotlight journalists ousted the Catholic Church in Boston for sexual abuse against children.
When you look at “All the President’s Men” entire story, you may see similarities to Trump’s Presidency. In “All the President’s Men”, we watch how Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein reporting had to overcome a lot of adversity to uncover the truth that led to President Nixon’s resignation. When you compare the Watergate scandal to Trump you can see how we are reliving an era. Trump has accused many media network’s journalists of producing fake news and has tried to hide the truth from the public. America is witnessing a sequel to the Watergate scandal except for this time, the Russians are involved and almost every news network is covering the story.
In today’s time, politicians cannot hide a lot of criminal acts from the media and it is only a matter of time until the truth is uncovered. “Spotlight” and “All the President’s Men” has inspired today’s journalism and brought awareness to how important journalism is to democracy.
