Take Your Sarah to Work Day

Frightening, is how I describe Page One: Inside The New York Times.

After the film ended I felt a sense of hopelessness, because what is happening to the Times (and the whole newspaper industry) is happening on such a grand scale, and no one stop the online revolution. I admit to preferring my precious 'free' Winnipeg Free Press app than to spend any money on actual newspapers.

The part I found the most discerning was when the lady who wrote the obituaries for twenty-one years decided to leave when the company asked workers to volunteer to quit. She had been very valuable for two decades and by no fault of her own she was out of a job. Now I do imagine her skill set was much more developed than that of my own (obviously), so for someone with such great experience, at the most recognized paper to be leaving her job is depressing for my generation.

Journalists, especially at the Times, have worked so hard to become creditable sources for the public, and watching the carpet being pulled from underneath the whole industry leaves me to think what will be left for us young hopeful students. Bloggers and Tweeters have stolen all the glory from actual news sources. The glory of being the first to reveal current events is lost on these online headline makers; the glory to the papers means so much more: it means a pay check. This leaves me wondering if journalists are going to have to work for free.

The documentary was not all horror stories. David Carr's story was one of achievement. After twenty years of battling drug addiction, he regained his life and a position at the Times, a dream he always had.

I thought that his story added some needed emotion to the factual documentary. He is a big personality and isn't afraid to voice his opinions which made the film much more interesting to me; to see such a colourful character succeed while pushing people's buttons. I loved when he was interviewing people because he came off cocky but he knew what he was doing and how to get the answers he wanted, even using his humour to get his point across.

I would have liked to see more of Tim Arango and his ventures reporting outside of the country. During the film he left to be a representative for the New York Times in Bagdad. It would have been interesting to see the process of reporting and residing in another country for a journalist.

I also thought seeing the whole process of how they come up with a story to how it ends up on the paper was so neat! The workers at the Times are always under such pressure, for timing and quality, but they always pull it off professionally because no matter what the paper has to hit the stands. It was like 'take your Sarah to work day', giving me a better idea if I think this is what I want to do.