Shattered Glass is a real-life story about Stephen Glass with his act of lying to people raising questions on the integrity of the journalism of America. After the discovery of fabricating his news stories, the young journalist lost fame. It was evident that he cooked up most of his pieces. It was an act considered to be in opposition to ethical standards.
In this movie, the two main issues that contributed to secure ethical messages are that Stephen Glass faked his news stories, as played by Hayden Christensen. Twenty-seven out of forty-one of his published news stories were partially or wholly cooked up. These stories were complete up of false sources or quotes, with some even having been fabricated the whole story. This build-up powerful ethical messages to everyone because it is not a good act. This act cost Glass his job and also diminished the belief that his fans had in him.
My analysis of the issues is that Stephen Glass did a very unethical act. He lied to everyone. It seems he found himself under this situation for being under pressure. It also appears that he had been stressful for a long time. The ethical issues for Glass were losing his job, trust, and integrity. He lost everything. No one believed in him. He felt that the world was against him; this made him spent much of his time writing to clean up his mess.
The Glass would not have been in this situation if he could have followed journalistic values and principles. The rule-based thinking was a fundamental principle that Glass failed to comply. The rule states that it is a duty of a journalist to absolutely do the right thing no matter the consequences that he or she may encounter. Glass never followed this rule, and therefore he failed to do what was a prerequisite of him. The second journalistic principle that Glass did not support is the Rule of End-based thinking, which states that journalists ought to select the course of action that adds value to most people. Glass betrayed his readers because he lied. He did not follow the rules.
If by any chance, I experience the same challenges faced by Stephen Glass, I would quickly come clean. I could stop cooking up stories because it is against the rules and principles of Journalism. Fabrication and Plagiarism in the world of journalism are prohibited. It can make a person lose a job and trust from society. It also demoralizes the integrity of a person.
The scholarly article of Knowing and Avoiding Plagiarism during Scientific Writing by Mohan P Kumar states that “Most writers in the world are not aware that Plagiarism is a very destructive act. It can range from minor dishonesty to a severe problem of duplicating the scripts” (Kumar, 2014). the second scholarly article that educates writers on the effect of Plagiarism and fabrication practiced by those in the journalism fraternity is the article of Plagiarism, a new challenge for scientific publication. This article states that Scientific writing is a vital process which should be respected at all cost (Sarvy B, 2019).
In conclusion, Shattered Glass is a very thrilling movie that has taught me several lessons in life. The experience I have learned is that fabrication should not be practicable at all. It has a negative impact as it can make one lose trust and integrity from society and even lose a job. Fabrication affects the involved individual directly. Glass did not accept his flaws. If he had been honest, maybe he could not have faced severe consequences.
I would recommend my friends to get a chance of watching this play. It might open their eyes and also make them be able to educate others close to them on the consequences of fabrication.
Reference
Kumar, P. (2014). Knowing and Avoiding Plagiarism during scientific writing. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nihigor/pmc/articles.com
Sarvy (2019). Plagiarism: A new challenge for Scientific Publication. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319268986_Plagiarism_A_New_Challenge_For_Scientific_Publicationtps://www.researchgate.net