Situation Definition
The movie Shattered Glassis for young aspiring writers to learn about deception within the journalistic world. The unethical decision made by Stephen Glass (main character) to fabricate 27 out of the 41 stories he wrote at the New Republic is an example of what not to do. This movie not only shows the rise of Stephens career but the quick fall after just one lie spiraled into many more. Glass felt as if his stories were missing captivating information for his viewers and because of that he manipulated those around him to believe fake stories. The two main issues that stood out to me watching this film was his conscious effort to continue to lie and the lack of sorrow for his mistakes.
Analysis
Stephens first fabrication started off small. He made up a quote because he felt as if his story was missing that. As time went on his audience started to respond positively, and Glass began to build off of it. Along with Stephen Glass, others have also fabricated because they fear their stories can’t compete with others. This usually stems from an underlying insecurity in their personal or professional life. A study by Lewis Norman stated, “They were more likely to consider attribution optional if they were under pressure to produce, worked for a broadcast medium, were a content creator, were less experienced, or saw their principles as flexible”. Glass began to make up fake websites, phone numbers and whatever it took to support the story he was writing. Glass became known as a captivating and insightful writer for his readers and created a following for himself. His success blinded him from distinguishing between what is ethical and unethical. In my opinion Glass should have focused more of his time reporting the truth regardless of the effect of the story. Instead, Glass choose to modify the story to what he thought his readers would enjoy rather than the truth. The job of a journalist is to write the reality of the situation no matter what the outcome is. The continuation of his lies morally destroyed him.
Throughout the movie, one of my observations was that Glass showed no remorse for his wrong doings. Glass likely knew based on his recent completion of college the proper ethics around being a journalist and the importance of reporting the correct facts. After being called out for the total fabrication of “Hack Heaven” by Forbes magazine, Glass was not apologetic for his mistakes, and denied them. His editor took action by asking Glass to identify specific details to prove his credibility, and ultimately Glass struggled to provide them to support his story. In an article written by Nikita Garg, a study was done between the effects on emotion and fear and how that result in both the outcome of accountability. She states “The relationship between incidental emotion and accountability is particularly important in the domain of choice deferral”. This means that depending on what your current state is may change the outcome in wither or not someone takes responsibility for something they have done wrong. In this specific case Glass was fearful that his stories may not be successful without fabrication and angry of being questions by colleagues and readers. Due to this he was reluctant to take responsibility.
Conclusion:
My final thought is as a journalist you have a responsibility to do the ethical thing because the public relies on you providing them the correct information. Glass after his first fabrication should have come clean about the addition of his quote but instead did not and because of that things got progressively worse for him. Along with that his lack of accountability made matter even worse when he was questioned by those whom he thought he was closest with. Overall, both deception and responsibility were examples displayed throughout this movie was a good lesson to all whom are wanting to be professional writers.
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