On Thursday November 14th I attended the screening, and talk session of the movie “Shattered Glass”. “Shattered Glass” is about 24 -year- old Stephen Glass, who fabricated countless amounts of magazine articles for The New Republic, that were all supposed to be completely factual. In most of the film Glass is highly respected by all of his co-workers, and friends. He even has an extremely close relationship with his boss (editor), and it is evident that this man has put a lot of trust into him. Although Glass is extremely liked and talented, he is constantly under pressure to create astonishing articles. Glass created a remarkable article about a youth hacker who hacked into a massive company, and made the company have no choice but to have the kid work for their software security. Forbes magazine got a hold of the article and found out that the people, and company that Glass talked about were non- existent. This unfolded an investigation, which resulted in Glass getting fired, among many other disastrous events. The film makes it obvious that Glass’s only dream was to be a renowned writer, but instead he is known as the abhorrence of journalism.
After watching this film I was extremely surprised at how far Glass was able to continue his lie. It seemed as though Glass worked harder on maintaining his lie, than he would have just creating a factual article. It’s also unfortunate that Glass had such a supportive group of peers, and in the span of a weekend, he destroyed his relationship with everyone who had gained his trust, and cared for him. Even when it was obvious that Glass was in the wrong, his friends continued to support him. It’s also unfortunate, because Glass has created a new era where the simple notion of trust is no longer thought of, and now every writing piece is under scrutiny in regards to its level of accuracy.
Although I don’t have any interest in journalism, as a TRF student this still is an important subject. Because the media business is so competitive, people tend to take shortcuts, which end up in the detriment of his or her career. It is the right of the media user to be able to know when something is factual, and when something is not. As someone who is part of a new era in the world of communications, I have a duty to give truth when it is supposed to be given. By lying, we are hurting ourselves because we can never know our full potential in creating something that is actual truth.