Stephen Glass has written at least 27 fabricated stories to attract the public eye for The New Republic without anyone knowing. He loves the feeling that he was loved by his colleagues and the public; however, he deceived everyone without realizing that fabricating stories are unethical as a journalist. “Are you mad at me?” says Stephen Glass in the movie Shattered Glass. He was still lying to his co-workers till the last seconds.
First of all, Stephen Glass loves to be admired. He fabricated these stories to attract the public attention in order to receive their admiration. He acted to be a well-behaved, obedient, and pitiful person in order to obtain his co-workers’ sympathy and trust. Also, Glass’s work was trusted by everyone because his work, although cannot be fact-checked, were reasonable and have all the notes along with them. Therefore, all of Glass colleagues trusted him over the editor when the editor questions the credibility of his work and sources. He did not get caught until his last work “Hack Heaven” was published. He loves to fabricate fictions. The real Stephen Glass in CBS-TV’s 60 Minutes said: “I loved the electricity, I loved going to story conference meetings and telling people what my story was going to be and seeing them in front of me, excited. I wanted every story to be a home run.”(Shapiro, 2006, p. 263) Fabricating stories published by The New Republic is making him successful in his career. In the movie, he was imaging that he was a successful journalist from The New Republic and was giving a talk to students planning to develop their interests in journalism. Glass imagined that he was admired by these students about his brilliant achievement.
Because of his love of admiration by other people, he continues to fabricate stories. He continues to make up stories in order to receive the public esteem and admiration. This is a vicious circle. It is significant for journalists to have an ethical view because media have an important role in current society. Journalists have a huge responsibility on the credibility of the news. Only if the news convey the correct message, the public could get the right information and make the right decisions. “Our problem (as journalists) is our egos. If you’re not humble, you’re not a good journalist. You have to listen to understand,” Chris Delboni said. “You have to understand their language and culture. Then you are responsible for helping the audience understand.”(Lamar, 2015, p. 5) I think what Delboni is exactly what today’s journalists need to do. Fabricate stories like Stephen Glass would not work; And being trustworthy to the public are journalists’ responsibility.
We are in the information age, people like Stephen Glass could not get away easily like him. In my opinion, the best way to help with journalists not fabricating is to train them and tell them their responsibilities of being a journalist. If they cannot hold to their duty, they should not be a journalist. Also, it is important for the editors to check every reports before publishing in order to avoid the happening of similar cases like Stephen Glass. This solution is a little bit time-consuming. Nevertheless, I feel that this is a necessary step to make sure the credibility of the news. It’s hard to prevent the publish of every fake news, but it is possible to reduce the occurrence of similar cases. As an audience, I don’t want fake news to mistake my decisions; I don’t want to convey the wrong information to my audience as a journalist. If once I involved in this kind of dilemma, I guess I should quit the job at the first place. I shall not be a journalist if I lie to my audience because I don’t think that journalists who are dishonest worth the job.
References
Ray, B. (Director). (2003). Shattered glass [Motion picture].
Shapiro, I. (2006). Why They Lie: Probing the Explanations for Journalistic Cheating. Canadian Journal Of Communication, 31(1), 261-266.
LAMAR, M. (2015). Educator instills old values in new journalists. Quill, 103(4), 5.