Lesson 12 – A look into the New York Times – learning from the best in the business.
“Potent and provocative." - Rolling Stone.
Absolutely loved it.
‘Page One’ is a striking documentary that delves behind-the-scenes of The New York Times newspaper and comments on the future of print media and journalism as we now know it.
The film, shown in this week’s lecture, was a look into the chaotic, intimidating and extremely exciting world of the New York Times newsroom. What really appealed to me was the way that the documentary went into the lives and methods of the paper’s diverse group of journalists.
This added both a personal and practical element to the story, offering a day-to-day, hands-on view of how the best in the business go about the job. I found this to be both intriguing and of course relevant as a current journalism student.
There were three elements of the documentary which stood out to me above the rest…
1) The Relevance of Social Networking and The Internet to Modern Journalism
The reality it seems is if you not up with the latest technology, you’re a significantly large step behind the rest. Brian Stelter , one of the most widely read bloggers in America, was contacted by the Times due to his almost super-human level of technological competence and seems to be the pinnacle of network based journalism at the NYT.
The “New York Times has always been dying”, yet it is still here irrespective of the collapse in popularity of classifieds. The future seemed hopeful according to protagonists David Carr, Bruce Headlam and Brian Stelter.
3) David Carr
The hands down star of the documentary, David Carr brought a different intelligence to the film that greatly appealed to me. His frank, open and all round ‘no bullshit’ approach is one that clearly has earned him his place as Media Desk Reporter at the Times and could only come from having an incredibly textured past. The protagonist doesn’t shy away from his drug addicted past, conceding that his past life has contributed to the journalist he is today.
A quote from Carr about colleague involvement in the movie, which as a hopeful female journalist, adds to my high opinion of the journalist formed after watching ‘Page One.’:
“One of the things you’ll notice in the film is that it’s mostly men on camera. There were at least two really talented women in the Media Department – Stephanie Clifford and Motoko Rich . Both of them, I can tell you just from a standing start, are probably smarter and better than I am, really well spoken, brilliant journalists.”
IN CONCLUSION, ‘Page One’ offered an intriguing and multi-faceted view of the transformation of the international media landscape and gave us a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse into the inner-workings of the world’s most well renowned newspaper. The edgy documentary chronicles the highs and lows of the modern media industry and was an inspiring look into quality ‘real-world’ journalism.
You can check out the trailer for ‘Page One. Inside the New York Times’ below:
I seriously recommend that you do take some time to go and see the eye opening documentary and judge what you think of it for yourselves.
‘Showtimes at Schonell’.
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