COMS-130-MEDIA & SOCIETY

All the President's Men

Think about the traditional work and role of the journalist as you approach this question. Consider the journalists portrayed in the movie, All the President's Men, who were real-life journalists in the 1970s. Then consider how the role of journalists have changed, including how social media is creating a form of citizen journalist where everyone with access to a smartphone and the internet can film, post, and circulate stories of interest.

Answer the following in a thoughtful 1-to-2 page response:

• Consider the point from the handout under page 3 of the handout under "essay" that describes the publisher's remarks to journalists. What did he mean when he told them so much was "riding" on their story?
• How do journalists affect the role of media in our society?
• What effects, if any, do social media have on the function of journalism?
• Do you consider the emergence of citizen journalists using social media a positive or negative outcome of our modern age?
• How might these changes affect the role of journalists, particularly newspaper journalists, in the reporting of information?

It may be helpful to review these two resources that further describe All the President's Men
This link describes the work of Woodward and Bernstein from a journalist's point of view:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/stories/ringle.htm 

This link leads to the PDF that includes the question sheet we discussed in class to gain background (this PDF is also uploaded to the Shared Files section of Cruiser):
http://jea.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/specialreport.pdf