Movie Review: State of Play, or Why Newspapers Are...

Movie Review: State of Play, or Why Newspapers Are Still Important

Posted by Petes1234567 209 days ago

Full Story: http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/04/17/movie-review-s...

As recently as January 2009, industry observers speculated that The New York Times might go out of business before the end of the year, crushed under the weight of insurmountable debt. In the January/February 2009 issue of The Atlantic, Michael Hirschorn asked, “Virtually all the predictions about the death of old media have assumed a comfortingly long time frame for the end of print…But what if the old media dies much more quickly? What if a hurricane comes along and obliterates the dunes entirely? Specifically, what if The New York Times goes out of business—like, this May?” The NYT’s troubles reflect the broader problems of the newspaper industry as a whole, which continues its Bataan death march into financial ruin.

Many might rejoice at the notion of an entirely digital future for journalism, where information is easily accessible, facts are often accompanied by easy-to-read opinion, and citizen journalism (and maybe a touch of internet vigilantism) are allowed to take hold. But the facts don’t conveniently line up with that kind of thinking. Hirschorn writes: “Internet purists may maintain that the Web will throw up a new pro-am class of citizen journalists to fill the void, but for now, at least, there’s no online substitute for institutions that can marshal years of well-developed sourcing and reporting experience—not to mention the resources to, say, send journalists leapfrogging between Mumbai and Islamabad to decode the complexities of the India-Pakistan conflict.”

These tensions in the journalism industry are adeptly brought to the forefront in Kevin MacDonald’s new film, State of Play.