I began drafting this opinion ready to argue that journalism’s portrayal in fiction reflects and worsens a national delusion that journalists are either virtuous heroes, or opportunistic liars. I still intend to do that; however, in surveying MCCC students I may also have stumbled onto a cause of this problem. Journalism relies on trust, and that trust depends on understanding who journalists actually are. As more of us get our news from social media, we are losing that understanding
Part of this absolutely is a problem with the way journalists are portrayed in fiction, and this problem arises from one fact: fictional media exists to make money. Media’s producers are motivated to be concerned with eyeballs on screens, not to care particularly about what is on those screens.
Based on box office returns and relative budget, arguably the most profitable fictional journalist in the US is the Scream franchises’ Gale Weathers, who fits both ends of the problematic fictional spectrum. She can be aggressive, manipulative, and violate journalistic ethics, but she also helps free a wrongly convicted man from jail with dogged reporting and some gunplay. Frankly she is more an action hero than a journalist. But from the studio’s perspective, she has helped maintain a multimedia franchise for literal decades, and that’s what matters.
So, I set out to see how fiction was shaping Mercer students’ views of journalism, and I believe I found a cause for this distorted picture instead. In a survey of 30 Mercer students, 73% answered yes to the statement “In general I find professional journalists trustworthy,” though just under half added that context was important to them.
Next each was asked to name one fictional and one real journalist. Most could not name one of either. Only nine journalists were named, six of them fictional, and Tucker Carlson was two of the three answered for non-fictional.
This baffled me. I expected a lot of “Clark Kents” and local anchors like Jim Gardener, but instead found essentially nothing.
My last question offered an answer. Asked, “what is your primary news source” 16 of 30 answered social media. Only 3 students mentioned a specific app. 13 of the 16 simply said, “Social Media.” A majority of students were unaware not only who their news was coming from, but even which organization.
Personally, I am old enough to remember a time when most would have answered Tucker Carlson or a local TV anchor. I am not saying that news was better then. In fact, social media has advanced and improved communication tremendously in many ways. But journalism, so fundamental that it is in the First Amendment of the Constitution, is built on trust. A trust that is impossible without understanding who that news is coming from.
Fortunately, there are solutions, and you are holding it in your hands. Or more likely viewing it on your screen. Question what I wrote. See what other journalists say. Decide if you agree. Better yet, come to a VOICE meeting, and see the hard work and intense discussion in person.
