I never worked on a newspaper or anything in college, high school, not even a Chinese school Saturday bulletin. But I've always read newspapers, been interested in newspapers. Maybe it's the crisp feeling I get from opening up a fresh copy of the Chicago Tribune back when I lived in the Chicago suburbs, going outside in the morning trying to find it (sometimes the newspaper guy missed the mark), bringing it in, sometimes it was wet because it had rained before, scanning the front page, and then.......going quickly to the sports section. Much more than the feeling and texture of the newspaper, though, was the content of the information itself. I felt much more connected to the rest of the world than living in the small suburb of Darien, IL.......there was more out there, more people out there doing interesting things, words I didn't know the meaning of yet, things I couldn't even explain yet or grasp the concept of yet....which was probably pretty exciting as a kid, except I wasn't cognizant of this excitement, I just felt that it was something I wanted to do every day.
Over the weekend my gf and I watched "Spotlight," the semi-documentary movie about the Boston Globe's reporting on the Boston area Catholic priest molestations, the reporting taking place around 2001 and finally being reported in early 2002. Coincidentally, we also watched Spotlight win the Best Picture award at the Oscars on Sunday night. What's striking about Spotlight is that it's not very dramatic, there's no HUGE, dramatic plot twist or any murder involved, it's just a story that slowly develops, has a few developments, but genuinely portrays the events that happened leading up to the revelation of the sexual crimes Catholic priests had committed against young Catholic boys. It showed journalism at its best, reports diligently pursuing leads and working tirelessly against the grain it seemed like for most of the movie to get to the truth, with a payoff of getting the top story in the Boston Globe and making a huge difference worldwide in how one of the biggest organizations in the world (the Roman Catholic Church) conducts itself. 2001, a time when print journalism really made a difference. Since then newspapers have gone the way of books and other print media: like dinosaurs, they rarely exist. It's sad really: nowadays everyone including myself has a lower attention span because there's so much out there, the acronym "TL: DNR" (Too Long: Did not read) accurately sums up most people's attitude towards long text-based articles. People need pictures, videos, graphics, jumping out at them. Facebook walls are most people's newspapers nowadays: no need to get out of bed, go out the front door, grab the paper, all those little steps that made my childhood newspaper reading days special.
Spotlight oddly reminded me of the 5th and final season of the Wire: garned mixed feelings but had a very important message about journalism: "The fishes are scared and just looking for a bigger pond." Unfortunately, newspapers are declining so much due to the Internet that journalism has devolved into just grabbing people's attention and trying to win prizes (like the Pulitzer) in order to survive. It shouldn't be like that: As Spotlight showed, journalism at least in 2001 didn't use to be out getting the glitz or the glamor, it used to be about getting to the truth and allowing readers to form an opinion and informing the readers of what's out there in the world, of informing 8-year-old Robert Yan in Darien, IL about all that the world has to offer.
Luckily for newspapers, my parents still read newspapers, my grandparents still read newspapers, and I imagine many people born in the newspaper generations still like the nostalgic feeling of getting the newspaper (like myself). However, I'm concerned about future generations: will they even know that newspapers existed, and more importantly: will newspapers (and other media) be able to get those big stories like the ones in Spotlight and affect social change that make a positive difference in the world that we live in?
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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