The movie Shattered Glass shows what can happen to journalists when they act in an unethical way in the workplace. Steven Glass is a young journalist eager to make a name for himself working for The New Republic. Unfortunately, he takes it too far and completely fabricates dozens of stories. The two most prominent ethical dilemmas Glass struggles with are honesty and courage. Courage is defined as the mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty, and honesty is defined as a fairness and straightforwardness of conduct (Merriam-Webster).
Steven Glass clearly acted in an extremely dishonest and cowardly way. Instead of having the courage to take on a hard task, and risk failing he cheated his way out of having to work hard at something difficult. Steven Glass can be classified as a plagiarist. Reactions to plagiarism also vary dramatically, ranging from claims that it is a “crime” (Jamieson, 2016; Stebelman, 1998) by someone who is possibly suffering from a mental illness (Howard, 2000). I believe that Glass had something mentally wrong with him. He can most likely be classified as a pathological liar and mentally unstable. Journalism isn’t exactly the field for someone who suffers from those conditions. He was a grade A manipulator and demanded to be loved.
Indeed, when people interact with others, they are mainly interested in establishing whether someone’s intentions are beneficial or harmful and whether it is safe to approach a social target (Cuddy et al. 2008; Ybarra et al. 2001). This is part of the reason I think Glass was so dangerous and got away with fabricating stories for so long. He posed as this cheerful guy who loved work, and was nice to everyone. When in reality he was a monster in sheep’s clothing. Of course everyone is going to trust the nice guy who brings people coffee and compliments the women. He seems harmless, but that is the very brink of Glass’s manipulation and his choice to act dishonestly. I also think that is why his coworkers did not want to believe the truth at the end because they had been fooled.
In a strange way, I kind of understand the position Glass felt he was in. He was not that much older than me when he made the terrible decision to fabricate his stories. He was a young, eager, passionate journalist who was trying to make a name for himself at a huge publication. I can understand feeling scared because you aren’t producing what you want too. I too have big hopes and dreams that can seem overwhelming at times.
Instead of fabricating stories and completely lying, Glass needed to either communicate these feelings with a coworker or spend the time he took fabricating stories and work harder on real stories. That is where my point of his dilemma with courage comes in. He had a choice to take the easy way out, or the hard one. He chose the easy way out and it completely backfired. Overall, I believe that Glass was well aware that what he was doing was unethical and wrong. It’s not like he made the mistake once, he chose to act unethically dozens of times. After the first or second time, there is no fixing that.
Overall, this movie taught me to be true to myself and stick to the facts. I have always held myself to a certain standard of achievements. But success cannot be considered success if you cheat your way there.
Courage. 2018. In Merriam-Webster.com Retrieved September 18, 2018, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/courage
Cuddy, A. J. C., Fiske, S. T., & Glick, P. (2008). Warmth and competence as universal dimensions of social perception: The stereotype content model and the BIAS map. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (pp. 61–149). San Diego: Academic Press.
Honesty. 2018. In Merriam-Webster.com Retrieved September 18, 2018, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/honesty
Howard, R. M. (2000). Sexuality, textuality: The cultural work of plagiarism. College English, 62, 473-491.
Jamieson, S. (2016). Is it plagiarism of patchwriting? Toward a nuanced definition. In T. Bretag (Ed.), Handbook of academic integrity (pp. 503-518). Singapore: Springer.