Blog 2: Code of Ethics

The movie, Nightcrawler debuted in 2014 and was directed by Dan Gilroy. Nightcrawler takes place in Los Angeles, California, focusing on capitalism in the journalism industry. The movie follows the lead, Lou Bloom who witnesses an accident right before his eyes and a man pulling up to the scene to record the incident. Bloom, realizes that he could make money by making a profit by just selling film to local new station. Bloom sells the footage to Nina Romina, who works for a local news station. Bloom purposely alters the media he gives to Romina to make a higher profit. There are many incidents where Bloom, Romina and others violate the Code of Ethics.

    There are three forms of ethics from the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics that are violated throughout the movie. The violations throughout the film are stereotyping, distortion of visual information and not showing compassion for those who are affected by the event. Stereotyping is when someone instantly labels another person or thing based on their common associations. Another violation of the Code of Ethics in the movie is the distortion of visual information, facts or context. This is important to note because in the movie there a numerous cases where this happens. Lastly, journalists should show compassion to their subjects because they are affected by the news coverage Journalists should be aware and use heightened sensitivity of their subjects when filming because they could be traumatized by the event prior.  

    In Nightcrawler, Romina is discussing with Bloom about the footage that her

    “Romina: That’s only part of it. We like crime. Not all crime. A carjacking in Compton, for example, that isn’t news, now is it? We find our viewers are more interested in urban crime creeping into the suburbs. What that means is a victim or victims, preferably well-off and/or white, injured at the hands of the poor, or a minority.”

    In this quote Romina is violating the Code of Ethics by stereotyping that minority crimes do not concern viewers versus crimes in the white suburbs. Romina stereotypes that crimes within minority neighbourhoods such as, Compton are not relevant since crime is common in there. Romina should have considered showing the crimes in Compton because all crimes are important, and journalists should not capitalize on showing crimes within white suburbs.

    Bloom violates the Code of Ethics by distorting the visual information, facts or context to get a higher selling price on his film. In this scene, Lou is running up to the body on the side asking a motorist questions,

    “Bloom: (to a freaked MOTORIST) TV news. What happened?

Motorist: Head-on! They’re dead!

Bloom: Did you see it happen?

Motorist: No, after.

Bloom: What exactly did you see?

Motorist: Bodies. Blood. Get that camera out of my face.”

   

    Bloom did not get the information that he wanted out of the Motorist, so Bloom decided to change the layout of the bodies on the floor so that he can get a better shot of the incident. In doing so, Bloom distorts the story, the scene, and the visuals in order to get a higher pay for the film and  better ratings. Bloom should have not touched anything in the scene, as a way to keep his integrity as a journalist.

As the plot progresses there is a scene between Romina and Frank discussing what she wants to do with the film that Bloom gave her stating,

“Romina: That’s the lead. I want to break it up and do a wrap-around from the scene. Let’s get Joel rolling. I want a walking stand-up. Teaser at five and repeat on the half. I want the copy to start with a warning.

Frank: You’re going to show this?

Romina: With a warning.

Frank: It’s excessive.

Romina: We should have packages like this every day.”

This example from the movie captures the violation of the Code of Ethics because journalists should be considerate by showing compassion for their work. In this scene, Romina wants to show a graphic scene and Frank disagrees because he thinks that the clip is too graphic for the viewers. Romina as a journalist, fails to acknowledge the impact of her decision to air the clip has on the viewers watching at home and the victims of the scene. Romina should have showed compassion towards her viewers by not airing the graphic scene, even with a message.

Works Cited

Gilroy, Don, director. Nightcrawler. Open Road Films, 2014