“State of Play” Movie Analysis
“State of Play” is a thriller movie whereby a reporter, McAffrey, uncover the truth of a murder. One night, two people were shot, and the next day, a researcher, Baker, who was working for Congressman Collins, was killed by a train and her death was ruled a suicide. The news of her death went viral as she is the mistress of Congressman Collins. Collins asked McAffrey for help as he knew that Baker did not commit suicide. McAffrey knew that the shooting incident and Baker’s death were linked. McAffrey found out that Baker was sent to the Collin’s workplace as a spy for a military company and also found the assassin, Bingham. McAffrey wrote an article and he recalled that the Collins’s wife, Anne Collins, had a conversation with him and stated the amount of money that Baker had been receiving from the military company which he did not tell her. He then found out that the Collins and Bingham are connected and went to find Collins. Collins revealed that he hired Bingham to watch Baker after knowing she was a spy and Bingham killed Baker as he is afraid that she will destroy Collins, since Collins saved his life before. Eventually the Collins was arrested.
The three theories that will be discussed is agenda setting, journalistic objectivity and stereotypes which appeared in the movie.
Agenda setting happened in the movie whereby the media prioritised Baker’s death over other news. Agenda setting theory illustrates the idea that mass media makes the public focus on certain issues they want to highlight (Mccombs and Shaw). The issues are often repeated to suggest to the public what to think about, feel about and know about (Mccombs and Shaw). The night before Baker was killed, two people were shot. However, the media did not focus on the incident whereby two people were shot. Instead, they choose to focus on Baker’s death because she was the mistress of Congressman Collins and that was controversial news. To the media, Baker’s death was a much bigger news since a prominent politician is involved. Also, it was a timely news since it happened just that morning. In real life, agenda setting happens too. Song Joongki and Song Hyekyo had their wedding on 31st October 2017(“Descendants Of The Sun”), and one day before their wedding, a famous Korean actor, Kim Joohyuk passed away in a car accident(“Autopsy Finds Fatal Head Injury”). However, Song Joongki and Song Hyekyo wedding were more widely covered and was all over the media because they were considered more prominent figures as compared to Kim Joohyuk because they played lead roles of one of Korea’s iconic dramas, Descendants of the Sun. Also, their wedding was highly anticipated by many people, thus the death of Kim Joohyuk was not widely reported. The reason why agenda setting is used is because the media wants to highlight issues that that they think are important to the public and that the public should know. This is so that everybody will know what is happening and what they need to look out for or look forward to. The media cannot make the public think the way they want them to, however it possible for them to make the public think about the issues which will lead them to think the way they expect them to react. Agenda setting is a very useful and powerful tool for the media to spread messages and construct mental images and ideas in the public’s mind. Thus, one cannot entirely believe in what the media portray and have to analyse the details and fact-check with other sources.
Journalistic Objectivity was also seen in the movie whereby McAffrey seeks for objectivity in his stories. Journalistic Objectivity is known as reporting only facts and reality with no insert of personal opinion or prejudice (Maras). It is very important as the public trust and rely on news for information (Morris) , and also news shape the public’s perception of issues and the world (Entman) . In response to news, the public may take actions and make decisions based on the information they receive. Thus if any information is false, the public may react negatively and there may be dire consequences (Mcnair).
In the movie, McCaffrey uncovered the truth and found out that his friend, Collins was behind Baker’s death. He did not defend Collins nor did he publish an article that makes Collins stand in the positive light. McCaffrey published the truth and seeks objectivity the whole time. The only downside was, McAffrey was unethical in his pursuit of the story as he broke the law. What is meant by ethical here is that one must do follow their principles and act morally in a given situation (Dominick). The reason why McAffrey choose to publish the truth is because he wants to be professional and stick to his principles. Most of the news in real life are considered as objective news. However, news that are biased do exist. Fox News is a pro republican news channel and many republicans rely on that channel for news and information that is more bias towards republicans (Morris) . All reported news may not have been as journalists may have inserted their opinion into their articles subconsciously and “journalistic objectivity” could just be a term used to encourage journalists to pursue objectivity though it is not completely possible. Although journalistic objectivity is often argued about whether it truly exists or not, it is necessary for journalists to try seek objectivity while pursuing a story. The public really do rely heavily on the news for information, thus news really do have a huge impact as they can make the public think and act. With too much insert of personal opinion, the reported article may create different illustrations of the incident as compared to the truth. This is how split opinions of the public happen and there may be dire consequences due to non-objective reporting.
Stereotype can be identified in the movie. Stereotype is a generated impression of a group of people based on characteristics that an individual of that particular group portrayed (Macrae). In the movie, when McCaffrey went to find the forensic officer to take a look at the dead black thief’s belongings, he said “never happens to a white man” when nobody came to claim the black dead man’s belonging. Black people are often stereotyped to be homeless (Marsh and Kennett) and criminals (Marsh). Whereas, since white is assumed as the more superior race (Macrae), which is more positive, he assumed that all dead white people’s belongings have been collected. Stereotypes are not formed in just a day, it takes time (Macrae). Thus, McAffrey may have been exposed to negative messages of the blacks and positive messages of the white for quite awhile to form such images and stereotypes. In real life, there are a lot of such incident. The September-11 attacks are conducted by the Islamic terrorist group, al-Qaeda (“9/11 Attacks.”). Ever since then, many people have the idea that muslims support the terrorist attacks and are terrorists (Kabir, “5 Common Stereotypes About Muslims, Debunked.”) which is not true as not all muslims are extremists like al-Qaeda. Everyone do stereotype and have prejudice against certain groups and stereotypes are also commonly used in the media to portray certain images of certain groups. Stereotypes may apply to some people but not all in a group as people are not homogenous. Thus, one must always keep an open mind and not let their prejudice get in a way of getting to know, communicate or work with that person. Also, stereotypes do affect the way people think and some people may even live up to their stereotype unknowingly.
In conclusion, media is a very powerful platform to influence the public’s thoughts, opinions and sometimes even their actions. All media messages are constructed in a way to make the public view certain issues in a certain way. In the process of constructing media messages, certain information are hidden and not reported. The public cannot fully trust the media and have to analyse different articles from different sources to interpret the news for themselves. Public should always keep an open mind when reading the news to avoid misinterpretation of the news and also try not to let their prejudice of a group get in the way of their analysis.
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