Christopher Boshers
Professor Jim Willis
Mass Media and Cultures
26 February 2013
Story of a Lifetime The film that I chose “State of Play” starring Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren, Jason Bateman, Robin Wright Penn and Jeff Daniels was based on British television show with the same name. The story follows a journalist that is old friends with a Congressman who becomes entangled in the murder of a researcher that is currently working on the role of a big business in the security business that wants to privatize Homeland Security. At the beginning of the movie we see what appears to be a thief being chased by a very suspicious character. He then kills the man and shoots a pizza delivery man who survives the shooting. The next day the intern, Sonia Baker appears to commit suicide by stepping in front of a train. This is when Congressman Collins approaches Cal McAffrey, who happens to be the journalist and the main character of the movie. This is when Cal discovers that the Congressman and Sonia have had an affair which puts the Congressman in a really bad predicament. With this information Cal is able to be the first that has the necessary evidence from a credible source on the story. This source fit all three of the criteria for a news source. He was an authority on the matter, he was thought to be a credible source, and was available and willing to speak. The investigation leads to a PR executive who had served as the PR liaison for the corporation PointCorp. They are currently employing mercenaries in different countries all over the world. It is then that Cal discovers that Sonia had been working with PointCorp as a spy in the Congressman’s office. The research that she had been working on had discovered that 14 companies similar to PointCorp were looking to merge as one company, therefore controlling almost $40 billion dollars of contracts to privatize Homeland Security. This is established as the motive behind the murder of Sonia. In the end Cal discovers that the Congressman had known that Sonia was a spy for PointCorp and had her followed by a marine that the Congressman had served in the military with. At the end of the movie Cal approaches the Congressman and informs him that he is aware of the Congressman’s involvement. He informs the Congressman that the police are on their way. When Cal starts to leave the building he is stopped by the marine, the police show up and shoot the marine. Cal and his assistant are allowed to write the story as it happened. This movie includes many different journalistic orientations. Cal the main character has a mix of two different orientations. The first would be the Investigative Approach, Cal inserts himself into the investigation, and he is able to discover leads faster than the detectives on the case. He is constantly threatened by the detectives on the case to disclose the leads that he is able to generate through his investigative efforts. He does not even realize that he is trying to open up a scandal that leads all the way up to the Congressman’s office. As he continues with his investigation he moves into the Larger Truth Approach, he slowly puts together the small pieces of the puzzle to realize that there is a bigger scandal involved. He also treats the Congressman with respect and does not suspect his involvement at all. But his biggest approach of the different Investigative Approaches is the Impressionistic Approach. His editor is using the Economic Approach to reporting the story. It appears that the newspaper has been taken over by a new group of owners who care nothing about the quality of the story, but whether or not it sells newspapers. The editor wants to push a story that has only a few of the details, just to get a story out so that the paper will sell. This is her only reason to want to push or force a story from Cal and his assistant. This approach does not allow for the facts of a story or even if the story is somewhat is accurate. This type of reporting is the most ineffective type of reporting that exists. This type of reporting does not allow for facts, accuracy or even a solid story. This type of reporting is used today due to the fact that the Internet has taken over reporting and sales of actual newspapers have declined. This type of reporting takes the integrity away from the editor, the journalist and the newspaper itself. This is what the editor of Cal’s paper was willing to use just to make the owners happy. This approach puts Cal at odds with his editor, owners and his beliefs. Cal has the desire to report the facts of the story, and only the facts. He wants to carry the investigation to the very end to report a quality story that allows the reason to know exactly what happened to Sonia. He continues to investigate the story to the bitter end; he does not let his friendship with the Congressman to get in the way. At the end of the movie Cal and his assistant report the story on their own terms. They are allowed to report the facts, and keep the integrity of the newspaper and their own integrity as journalists. I really liked the movie and what it says about journalists, it gives me hope that there are journalist our there wanting to report a story with the true facts. Facts that have not been skewed to point the reader in the direction of what the newspaper believes. I would hope that this type of approach is used by all reporters, but I think that is a perfect world view. Stories that are written so that a reader is not directed toward a certain political belief or for just the shear economic reason are required to inform the public of what is really going on in the world around us. Unfortunately I do not think this is the case, we see certain news media that support one or the other political parties, and do not report news correctly on companies that support the opposite political party than they do. It is unfortunate that this is the way things are, and I don’t think there is an answer to stop this from happening.

Works Cited
Ginneken, Jaap van. Understanding Global News. London: Sage Publications, 1998.
State of Play. Dir. Kevin Macdonald. Perf. Russell Crowe. 2009.
Willis, Jim. "http://elearn.rodp.org." 01 January 2012. Mass Media and Cultures. 26 February 2012 <https://elearn.rodp.org/d2l/lms/content/viewer/main_frame.d2l?ou=4720385&tId=25064162>.

References
Works Cited
Ginneken, Jaap van. Understanding Global News. Sage Publications, 1998.
The Year of Living Dangerously. Dir. Peter Weir. Perf. Mel Gibson. 1982.