JCOM 1500 Film Project Spring 2012

State of Play starts out with a boy, Deyante, being killed, and another boy, a pizza boy being shot. Cal the reporter who works for the Washington Globe thinks it is just a typical drug deal murder, and is there to report the case. Later on the news Sonia Baker, who works for Congressman Stephen Collins, who is also friends with Cal from College, dies at the Metro Station, they say that it was an attempted suicide. When Stephen Collins is announcing it on T.V. he starts crying, so now everyone comes to learn about his affair with Sonia. He then goes to Cal to help him out. Cal then does whatever he can to investigate the murders and learns that Sonia's murder, the other boys murder, and the pizza boy shooting are all connected. He then learns about Point Corp, a military corporation, and Sonia's affiliations with them. Congressman Collins was fighting against them and found out that she was working for Point Corp.

There are many different ethical dilemmas present in this film. In the beginning after Collins mistress, Sonia, dies the media just assumes that it is a suicide. When Collins seeks out Cal for help and a place to stay he says  "I co-sponsored two bills in the last ten years and am in the middle of co-authoring another one, and this is what I will be remember for, I will get more coverage on this then anything else I will do in my life."
This is an example of selective exposure. The film is based and made in 2009, there have always been scandals involving congressman and their affairs. People often have experiences with this because it is so common. So after Collins comes to Cal and tells him that Sonia didn't kill herself, Cal tells him that they need to turn the story around, do some "framing." He suggests making the stories about the Metro not being safe. In the Codes of media Ethics it says Journalists should avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived, it also states that they should be vigilant and courageous about holding those with power accountable. Because Collins was Cal's friend he was willing to do whatever it took to make him look better, he was willing to twist the story in different ways. Another Ethical dilemma is when Cal gets some pictures from a girl, who is a friend of the kid who was shot in the beginning, the pictures are of Sonia Baker, somebody was stocking her. So the other reporter Della goes to interview the pizza boy who is still in the hospital after being shot. While she is there the pizza boy gets shot from a man outside the window.  When Cal comes to get her she says this...

Also when Cal finds someone who is connected to Sonia Baker he wants to tape him, and that is very much illegal. The New York Times stated about the movie " Della and Cal spar over journalistic ethics and habits, but their arguments carry no real dramatic force." In the movie they are always arguing over whether something they are doing is ethical or not, yet even if it isn't ethical Della never does anything about it.


Some of the consequences from the actions of the journalists are when Cal gets a bunch of pictures from a girl whose friend died because he stole the pictures from a brief case. The brief case contained pictures of Sonia, someone was obviously stocking her. Cal kept these images and he realized the two murders were connected instead of handing the evidence to the police they keep it for their own gain. The pizza boy then is shot, and he may or may not have been saved if they would have handed over the evidence to the police first. They do make a deal with the police after this that they will give them any information they gain if the police will cooperate and share information with them. Another consequence is since Cal is friends with Stephen Collins he tries to side the story with Stephen, when later he finds out that Stephen was just using him to do exactly that, so no one would find out the truth about Stephen and how he hired a man to follow Sonia Baker since he found out she was working for Point Corp and using Congressman Collins and was a spy for Point Corp. He may have been able to find out this truth sooner if he didn't have his rose colored glasses on.

When the Washington Post wrote a review of the state of play "Taking some cues from such recent headlines as Chandra Levy and Blackwater, not to mention "All the President's Men," the genre's urtext, "State of Play" plays politicians and journalists against each other in a continually shifting game of back-scratching and back stabbing."  At the time the movie was filmed there were real life stories similar to that of that which was really happening. There are often scandals of politicians who cheat on their wives. I believe this is why the movie was made because it happens all the time.

My main point here is that in this movie the reporter will do anything to get a story. In Times magazine on the review of State of play the reviewer, Richard Corliss said "If there's one thing I learned from both versions of State of Play, it's that a journalist never gives up." I agree with this statement completely. Cal does a lot of illegal things to get the story going in the direction that he wants it to go in. He steals phone numbers from Deyantes cell phone when his body is being examined, and finds Sonia Bakers phone number in it and this is how he finds out that the two murders are connected. As he digs even deeper he finds out that his own friend Stephen Collins is the reason she dies.

True or False Questions
1. Selective Exposure is based on how we see the world, individuals tend to pay attention to different kinds of information that is more or less relevant and familiar to their own experience.
2. Gatekeeping is not only what is decided in the end message, but also what a reporter decides to cover.
3. Agenda Setting is how news and information are presented once through the news "gate" and on the public agenda.
4. It was ethical for Cal to take the pictures without releasing it to the police first.
5. One of the Code of ethics for journalists states "Journalists should avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived."
6. One of the code of ethics for journalists states "Journalist should do whatever it takes to make a story sell"
7. It is legal to tape someone without their knowledge if you are a reporter.
8. Breaking the law is just Damn fine reporting.
9. The pizza boy is shot.
10. A journalist never gives up.

State of Play. Dir. Kevin Macdonald. Universal Pictures, 2009. DVD.

Corliss, Richard. "State of Play: Better on the Small Screen."Time Magazine Apr. 2009. Time Entertainment. Web. 19 April 2012.

Scott,A A.O. "The News on Paper, and Other Artifacts." New York Times April 2009. Web. 19 April 2012.

Hornday, Ann. "State of Play." Washington Post April 2009. Web. 19 April 2012