From Monday's class (12/3)
This page is an extra resource for students looking for more recent "portrayal of journalists" dramas, journalism-economics issues, reporter-ethics issues, television alternatives to film dramas, or the work of former journalists to present that profession to the world through films and fiction.
"The Wire" TV series is on HBO.com for subscribers and on DVD at the library, including a half-hour documentary ("The Wire: The Last Word" on the last disc of the boxed set). The documentary was on my "tentative" agenda for the last week of class, and I was hoping to find it on YouTube for people to watch outside of class, but if it's there I don't see it.
Instead, here's a scene with the (fictional) Baltimore Sun city editor explaining how a "fabulist" like Stephen Glass could get his start at the newspaper.
Here's a discussion of the series with its creator, David Simon, former Sun police reporter, who used the final season of The Wire to critique the current state of newspapers -- in particular his old employer.
And here's Simon via Democracy Now, testifying before Congress on the state of journalism
Reminder: I've collected YouTube links to dozens of other journalism films -- full-length older films and trailers or clips from newer films. See: Bob's YouTube Newspaper Movies Pages.
For contact info, see: Dr. Stepno's Radford University home page.