The movie Spotlight effectively demonstrated the accounts of priests in the Catholic Church molesting children, and the Church’s attempt at covering everything up. Not only did the Church sweep these instances under the rug, but they allowed the priests to relocate to other churches. The Boston Globe uncovered the corrupt acts by the church, and later was able to publish an article with proof of the acts. This movie presents some interesting aspects of communication, and how much associations or corporations care about their public view. In the movie Spotlight, it is shown how important communication channels are, how people may be swayed to keep quiet, and the length to which people may go to protect their reputations.
Communication Channels are very important in the movie Spotlight, as the movie focuses in on the Boston Globe. The Boston Globe, being a news company, obviously focuses on news in the form of Newspapers. The setting takes place approximately in the year 2000-2001, so online communication channels weren’t as prevalent as they are today. Back in the early 2000s, if you wanted the public to become aware of a particular news story, the options were the television and the newspaper. In the case of the Boston Globe, they were the best chance to get this news story out to the public. Through extensive research and work, they nailed down their story, and printed out a story for thousands of Bostonians to view. This is the power of mass media, and we still see its power today.
One prevalent issue that enables the Catholic Church to be able to cover up these molestation incidents is the fact that people were either afraid to speak up or were pressured to keep quiet. As is said in the film, some were pressured by the church, or even friends and family to keep quiet of the incidents. People are using the power of persuasion, a key part of communication, to keep these victims quiet. Some kept quiet from shame, some kept quiet for other reasons, but it cannot be denied that the victims keeping quiet helped the Church cover up these incidents.
Another key communication aspect in this film was the idea of Self Image. Throughout the whole movie we see this pop up here and there. Obviously, the Catholic Church, being very keen of its image, wanted to hush the victims. Hushing the victims led to the incidents being swept beneath the rug, and they preserve their image for the general public. Preserving an image is very important for groups and individuals, especially for organizations as large and ancient as the Catholic Church.
As we look back on the movie Spotlight, it contains many aspects of communication relevant to our course. It describes the importance of self-image, and how far organizations or individuals will go to preserve them. Spotlight also demonstrates the power of communication channels in the form of newspapers or mass media, which allows news to reach a massive audience. Lastly, it explains the pressures people face to keep quiet, and the obstacles they face in doing so.
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