A loss of respect...

While reading Chapter's One and Five of Ron F. Smith's "Ethics in Journalism" (6th Edition), I found Smith's portrayal of the general distrust of News media and Journalism quite interesting. When thinking about the distrust of Journalism I couldn't help but think of the Paparazzi incident with the Death of Princess Diana. I had never really taken into account how much bad representation that Journalists and news reporters of the like really get throughout all kinds of media. Movies that I think of throughout my life have mostly all laid our reporters under a very specific stereotype... Thinking of movies such as "Anchorman," "Spiderman," and yes even the Teenage Mutant Turtles all seem to put journalists into a selfish role, only looking for their way to the top and someway to impress their oppressive cigar smoking boss. It's sort of silly really how we dismiss reporters so quickly and yet in a time of crisis we all rely so heavily on them as our source of current and factual news. When something significant happens in the world it's the reporters job to get that information to us, yet we don't really recognize them when they do. "It's their job," and if they weren't able to get us that news than there would be public outcry. I had never through of a reporter's job as a thankless position, but in all reality it is.

The general decline in American's respect for organizations has been a topic that has been on my mind for quite some time. We live in an uncertain age where the "norm" is to think against the "Man" and really anything that may be considered "American." Some still may call themselves patriots, but I'm finding more and more people are ashamed to be considered an American. It's become socially respectable to bash our Nation's leaders with television publications such as "Little Bush." What is this really doing? I'm not writing this as a support of Bush or his policies, but it gets to a point where we wonder why Americans have such a negative stereotype when we don't even like ourselves… In fact if you do your weird.

I find it interesting that so many people of my generation get their news by watching John Stewart or Steven Colbert... (I know I'm making many Comedy Central references but bare with me) It's sad really we don't question the sort of "News" they report or where they are getting their information from. They are funny, and so we watch and listen to them. The thing we don't ask ourselves is if they are Comedians or Journalists? Either way they have a huge impact on today's popular culture and the opinions of many (See the “Colbert Bump” phenomenon). Would we be more apt to question the stereotypical News Anchorman's report? Perhaps more so because of our preconceived expectations, in turn we expect Stewart and Colbert to be funny and so when we watch do we think critically about them at all? I know I don’t.