"Dying to Tell the Story" Essay Response

In class we watched a movie called "Dying to Tell the Story". This movie focused on a photojounalist named Dan Eldon who died while photographing warzones in the Middle East. We were assigned to write an essay responding to this movie.

Here is my essay:

News, not the Newspaper

            Since the 18^th century, Americans have been reading the newspaper and considering everything it says to be factual news. A.J. Liebling was dead on when she said, “People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news.” This quote can be related to many events in history in which government control has taken over the press or news has been altered just to seem more interesting to the public. Several examples can be used to prove that the press is supposed to be using true facts in their papers and magazines but that’s not what always happens.

            Organizations such as Reporters Without Borders concentrate on countries in which there is not much freedom of the press or freedom of speech in general. These countries are the most likely to have falsified or doctored stories being printed as the news. In China, a group of reporters recently had a peaceful protest outside of their workplace because they wrote an article about the government and made all of their final changes to it and when it was printed in the paper the government had completely changed what the article said. In China there is a very big problem with the government controlling the press. If a reporter wanted to print something bad about the government or exploit a government official for abusing his power, the reporter would not be able to. Most people in China do not even know that the articles have been changed and what they’re reading is being doctored on a daily basis to make the government look as good as possible.

            Celebrities have hard enough lives as it is with their every move being watched by the public. These days with the press and expository magazines, good news doesn’t necessarily have to be true. Many magazines are known to print lies and stories with facts altered just to make them seem more interesting. Magazines and newspapers have been printed about aliens landing and celebrity couples breaking up that aren’t even having marital issues. In times of war, newspapers were often printed with screaming headlines to make the opposition look bad. In WWII, papers had screaming headlines about the bombing at Pearl Harbour giving the Japanese derogatory names such as “the Japs”. Many Japanese people were targeted as being spies or terrorist due to propaganda all caused by newspapers printing false information about their race.

            In conclusion, news has often served as a major intelligence for the American people. These days even social networks serve as news for teens and even some adults. Last year, an online newspaper printed an article about Jackie Chan being dead and many people believed this story and started to mourn his death when he wasn’t actually dead in the first place. The place of news has become a major part if our society but this threatens our intelligence level because just like A.J. Liebling said, “People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news.”