Situation definition
The movie Shattered Glass is about the story of Stephen Glass, a young journalist who plagiarized and fabricated 27 of his news story while working for the New Republic magazine. Most of his story seemed too good to be true, and as it turned out, they were indeed fictional. In order to cover up his lies about the sources, he made up fake sources to fool his editor and the fact checkers.
Through Glass’s actions, not only did him ruin his own career and reputation, he also fooled the readers and hurt the magazine he worked for. While Glass’s action is in no doubt wrong, how his magazine failed to fact check on his previous works but only focused on his “good stories” also raised an ethical issue.
Analysis
The reason why Stephen did what he did is actually not that hard to understand. Many young journalists, when facing the pressure of producing good and exciting stories, while at the same time, being lured by fortune and fame that a quality story might bring, sometimes choose to take shortcuts.
In Glass’s case, fabricating and plagiarizing got him to have the “excitement” he wants in his stories, it also earned him approvals from his editor and his colleagues, thus pushed him to go further. “He longs to be admired and loved; he cheats to avoid rejection… He finds himself increasingly encouraged to write ‘snarky, glib, superior’ copy and learns that what a journalist is looking for is ‘a good story; accuracy’s only half of it’.” (Shapiro, 262)
Stephen was just an ambitious newly college graduate, when young journalist like him tend to slide into the wrong path and make mistakes, his editor and the news agency he worked for should be able to find it out and correct it in time before any story even got published. However, being as big a magazine as New Republic was, the editor of Stephen Glass and the newsroom he was in failed to deliver their duty.
While the editor and fact checker’s job is to make sure the quality and authenticity of the reporter’s story before it was printed, Glass’s editor chose to believe in him because his story was so brilliant. “…they have the flexibility to absorb or assimilate a malfunction happening in one part of the system, so that the failure can be turned off, isolated or corrected, and the organization can continue to operate.”(Lasorsa &Dai, 161) and by allowing young Glass to get it his way, the editor and his colleagues also encouraged and pushed Glass to go further with his mistakes. It is undeniable that the New Republic is also responsible in Glass’s case.
In order to eliminate situations like this from happening, close and up-to-date communication between editors and reporters is crucial. In stead of avoiding confrontation with the editor and just make things happen their own way, the reporters need to trust their editor and be honest about their real situation on the story that they need to work on. This way, when they are feeling too pressured or running into problems, they could seek actual help from the editor instead of pulling tricks to make everything seems ok.
Conclusion
For a journalist, reputation is everything. It is better to fail that to cheat. Fabricating and plagiarizing may bring short-term benefits, but once getting caught, there is nothing you can do as a journalist to save your career in any ways.
When running into problems with your work, open communication with your editor should be the No.1 solution. Tell them what your problem is, be honest with them about needing more time or help. Finding and making a good story is never easy, but it doesn’t mean that it is ok to compromise journalism ethics for it.
Reference
Shapiro, I. (2006). Why They Lie: Probing the Explanations for Journalistic Cheating. Canadian Journal Of Communication, 31(1), 261-266.
Lasorsa, D., & Dai, J. (2007). Newsroom’s Normal Accident? Journalism Practice, 1(2), 159-174. Retrieved February 7, 2015.