Five Star Final

                    IMDB

Poster for Five Star Final 

               Five Star Final:

            A Study in the Radicalization of News 

      Five Star Final is a film that showcases an extreme example of when journalism ethics go out the window. 

    Joseph Randall is the editor of the New York Gazette newspaper. In his attempts to make the paper more legitimate, the number of copies sold has dropped dramatically. Thus, his bosses come to him with an idea on how to increase the number of copies. The simple answer is their idea amounts to pure sensationalism. 

    They want to do a retrospective on an older murder case from over twenty years ago. They task a reportor who is disguised as a priest to go to their home and get any information. Nancy Voorhees (the killer) and her husband Michael Townsend belief he is a priest with relation to the church their daughter Nancy is getting married at. So, they give the fake priest Isopod a photo thinking it would be used for marriage purposes. However, the next day the find the retrospective and photo plastered on the front page of the paper. 

   The scandal explodes and, in the aftermath, both Nancy and Michael kill themselves. Leaving Nancy and her fiancé Phillip Weeks furious at the Gazette. Randall himself already reflected and said he's not releasing any more issues to right in front of the higher ups. Nancy confronts the group and screams "why did you kill my mother." She even attempts to shoot Randall before Phillip stops her and tells the Gazette to never write anything about their family ever again. The final shot sees the suicide article being swallowed by the rain, showing that the public is fully against the paper and their sensationalism failed. 

    The film is of course entertainment first and a allegory second. However the ideas about journalism have grounds in history and even in the real world today. One of those was the Penny Press Era. The idea of selling copies for cheap to everyone to turn a profit. That was all the higher ups at the paper were worried about. They wanted to be the highest selling paper through any means necessary. No matter the effects on the people which brings up an ethical issue. 

    The goal of the journalism to inform the people and also to produce news that gets eyes on the newspaper. However posing as someone else and breaking into homes are obviously not included in that. The other less obvious issue is the retrospective isn't newsworthy. It's not relevant to anyone any there are more timely issues that could have been covered. There's been a implied barrier between a journalist and the person they're doing a story. It's always why most interviews aren't conducted in peoples homes. 

    The characters often fail and these ethical considerations. Randall is seen to be pushing the story and orders Isopode to pose as a preist to obtain senstive information. It takes him until after the suicide to realize he's gone to far. Hinchcliffe and the other higher ups never really understand how what they've done is seriously damaging, and have to be shamed by Nancy to not be as braizen in their support. 

    The film is a entertaining time and also serves a front for the consideration of journalism ethics in the modern day. I highly recommend giving it a watch. 

   

The History of Broadcast News

 

            Inspired Pencil   

                                                         1950s Family Watching the News 

     Broadcast News:

       From Radio to TV

    The news world of today is so vastly different from today it's almost incomparable. From social media and other short form content dominating how people obtain news. To streaming become a more appealing option for the dying market of local broadcast news. However it wasn't always like this. Without the information age, people had to find other ways to find  news. Radio and later broadcast news came to the resue. 

  Radio news was first introduced in the 1920s. The National Broadcast Company and the Columbia Broadcast Company did news segements and even radio dramas. Radio really started to hit it's stride during the 1930s when people were seeking happier times due to the depression. Comedy shows like Easy Aces and The Adventures of Gracie helped people have a bit of humor during the trying times

    Rural areas weren't just left out in the dust either. Radio shows like The National Farm and Home Hour saw lot's of engagment when being provided by WLS in Chicago. Even the music and entertainment sphere appealed to the rural areas as well. The longest live broadcast radio show: The Grand Ole Opry was broadcast by WSM out of Nashville and is still running today. 

 

    Starting in the 1930s, the radio became used for more than entertainemt. Politicians came to the realization that they could use it to speak directly to the people. Warren Harding was the first president to take full advantage of the technology. However it was Franklin D. Roosevelt used to great effect to speak directly to the people (often called fireside chats) and radio listenership drastically increased.  

 During World War 2, the public wanted constant updates on what was occuring. Newspapers couldn't get printed fast enough and were always a day late. Thus war reporting took off. The White House did place restrictions on reporting special operations (such as the atomic bomb) on reporters and they agreed to supress the information until the war had concluded.

    

    Despite the war ending, news people were optimistic about the future of radio. This is ironic as a whole new technology was about to take center stage. Higher ups at CBS and NBC were already looking into TVs to be a great unifying force for all of America.

    

    The "big two" had already been broadcasting in the late 30s after Lowell Thomas did the first television broadcast for CBS. Thus TV was poised to be massive for sharing news all over the country or what's going on in your community. 

    

    However local news orginizations were not using the technology to it's fullest effect. It wasn't until the tragic accident of Kathy Fiscus who fell into an abandoned well, that local news changed forever. A 50 hour resue effort was broadcasted locally to families in California. It unified the states and they became "an instant family of the nation." 

    From this point every major incident was publicily viewable via local news channals. Long term coverage of national events were the norm.  From John F. Kennedy's assasination to 9/11 it became the expectation of the people and the reason that local news remains valuable even in our fast paced information age.