The whole film presents a very absurd picture: Leo, an honest and responsible ordinary person, has joined the army, runs a small grocery store, does business diligently, and saves money to buy wedding souvenirs for his beautiful wife. See the end of life. But one day, he suddenly became the focus of the people of the whole country-because he was pinned under the cave and was dying.
Outside the cave, it was full of carnival crowds: reporters flocked like vultures, followed by tourists, and merchants naturally did not want to be left behind. They camped beside the cave and sold tickets, souvenirs, and food. As time went on, the circus entered the stage, the playground rose to the ground, and people spent their time "anxiously" waiting for the fate of the man trapped in the cave. Otherwise, there are police and doctors in charge anyway.
The biggest pusher in this absurdity is the journalist - reporter Tatum (Kirk Douglas). In order to make the topic "exploding", in order to maintain the popularity of the news, he gave up the most direct rescue method (it could have been rescued within 12 hours), but adopted another time-consuming tactic (the rescue operation could be extended). to 7 days).
This is the subject of a Pulitzer Prize for journalism! When he sold his article for a thousand dollars, when his colleagues were jealous but could do nothing, when the greedy sheriff didn't care about Leo's life or death, and the vain wife of Leo just wanted to make money from this accident When a handful, when the "eat melon" crowd gathered more and more, the film reached a climax - Leo died.
The crowd quickly dispersed, leaving only a deserted area. The media sighed for a few days, and soon followed the new popularity.
The barriers to entry for the media seem low, unlike doctors, lawyers, fund managers, which require long training and relevant skills and certifications to get in. As long as you can tell a story and can attract the attention of others, you can become a media. It seems even more so now. In the era of self-media, everyone can speak up. As long as they have a computer and connect to the Internet, they don’t even need to write it themselves. As long as they can copy and paste, they can “produce news”.
In fact, the threshold for the media is quite high, and it is even regarded as a right to restrain the government. In Milton's "On Freedom of the Press", the "free market of opinions" was proposed, which won the right of free discussion and publication for the press; the "four no principles" proposed by Ta Kung Pao determined that the media is an independent newspaper that has gradually grown in struggle. , the freedom of the press begins to shine with its characteristic light.
But this is only the ideal medium, and human nature is always holding back the ideal. Since Benjamin founded The Sun in 1833, the "story mode" has been rampant, and sensationalism has surpassed objectivism - the public does not need the truth, and they prefer emotional satisfaction to the pursuit of truth.
In the past, there was a "dual market" between media and money (media made money by selling traffic to advertisers), but now, media can directly monetize traffic, which is closer to money and has weak supervision (of course, independent media is essentially should not be subject to government regulation), which adds to the disorder and confusion. The media is supposed to function as social supervision and public service. Facing the huge temptation of money and interests, now it will only use grandstanding to arouse the low-level desires and emotional biases of the audience. Journalism is struggling to become professionalism.
As a journalist majoring in journalism, I used to have "journalism idealism", hoping to use my own words to illuminate the dark corners of the world. But after graduation, I realized how naive I was. In the face of the public carnival, there is no other way but to follow.
Wilder's greatest characteristic is his keen insight into human nature. This 1950s film predicts, without exaggeration, that nearly seventy years later, the future will only get worse.
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