Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Newspapers on Film
We have seen two films, His Girl Friday and Citizen Kane, in which the protagonists work in the newspapers business. What do these films tell us about the job of a reporter or publisher in the 1940's? What is the role or status of the newspaper at that time? How have things changed since that time?
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It seems that working in the newspaper business was a well-paying job as well as one that gave you respect. Citizen Kane and His Girl Friday let us know that newspapers had a lot of influence over the people who read them. Walter and Kane were both in charge of their respective papers which is to say that if they are in charge of the paper that influences the public, then they are in charge of the public. In Citizen Kane, it was quite evident that Kane wanted to use his newspaper to manipulate the people who read it.
ReplyDeleteToday, newspapers are losing more and more readers each year to due different ways of finding out current events that were not available in the 1940's. In 1940, unless you owned a television or radio, the newspaper was the only way to be aware of current events.
In the film, His Girl Friday we see how the newspaper buiness is protayed in the 1940s. We see how the papers print whatever they want to get readers. The perfect scene as an example of this is when they find the accused man in the desk. We hear all of the newspaper men call into their papers and report something diffrent. This perpetuates the saying that you can't belive everything you read.
ReplyDeleteI think that that saying holds true from now as well. people still say you cant always belive what you read, but i dont think its too the severity that it was in the 40s.