Ace in the Hole (1951), Nightcrawler (2014), Quiz Show (1994), Shock Corridor (1963), Official Secrets (2019), Medium Cool (1969), Five Star Final (1931), Gentleman's Agreement (1947) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Media Ethics movies.
Storyline: Charles Tatum, a down-on-his-luck reporter, takes a job with a small New Mexico newspaper. The job is pretty boring until he finds a man trapped in an old Indian dwelling. He jumps at the chance to make a name for himself by taking over and prolonging the rescue effort, and feeding stories to major newspapers. He creates a national media sensation and milks it for all it is worth - until things go terribly wrong.
Plot Keywords: film noir, journalism, moral decay, media manipulation, dark side of humanity, ambition, corruption ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: NIGHTCRAWLER is a thriller set in the nocturnal underbelly of contemporary Los Angeles. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Lou Bloom, a driven young man desperate for work who discovers the high-speed world of L.A. crime journalism. Finding a group of freelance camera crews who film crashes, fires, murder and other mayhem, Lou muscles into the cut-throat, dangerous realm of nightcrawling - where each police siren wail equals a possible windfall and victims are converted into dollars and cents. Aided by Rene Russo as Nina, a veteran of the blood-sport that is local TV news, Lou blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story.
Plot Keywords: crime, thriller, drama, dark comedy, moral dilemma, media ethics, ambition ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: An idealistic young lawyer working for a Congressional subcommittee in the late 1950s discovers that TV quiz shows are being fixed. His investigation focuses on two contestants on the show "Twenty-One": Herbert Stempel, a brash working-class Jew from Queens, and Charles Van Doren, the patrician scion of one of America's leading literary families. Based on a true story.
Plot Keywords: history, drama, biography, true story, scandal, deception, moral dilemma ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Johnny Barrett, an ambitious journalist, is determined to win a Pulitzer Prize by solving a murder committed in a lunatic asylum and witnessed only by three inmates, from whom the police have been unable to extract the information. With the connivance of a psychiatrist, and the reluctant help of his girlfriend, he succeeds in having himself declared insane and sent to the asylum. There he slowly tracks down and interviews the witnesses - but things are stranger than they seem ...—David Levene <D.S.Levene@durham.ac.uk>
Plot Keywords: psychological thriller, film noir, investigative journalist, social criticism, racial issues, cold war era, mental illness ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A morality tale for the 21st century, Official Secrets tells the true story of British Intelligence whistle-blower Katharine Gun who, during the immediate run-up to the 2003 Iraq invasion, leaked a top secret NSA memo exposing a joint US-UK illegal spying operation against members of the UN Security Council. The memo proposed blackmailing smaller, undecided member states into voting for war. At great personal and professional risk, journalist Martin Bright published the leaked document in The Observer newspaper in London, and the story made headlines around the world. Members of the Security Council were outraged and any chance of a UN resolution in favour of war collapsed. But within days, Bush declared he no longer needed UN backing and invaded anyway. As Iraq descended into chaos, Katharine was arrested and charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act. Martin faced potential charges too. Their legal battles exposed the highest levels of government in both London and Washington with having manipulated intelligence in order to sell an illegal war.
Plot Keywords: political thriller, true story, whistleblower, national security, iraq war, press freedom, government conspiracy ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: John Cassellis is the toughest TV-news reporter around. His area of interest is reporting about violence in the ghetto and racial tensions. But he discovers that his network helps the FBI by letting it look at his tapes to find suspects. When he protests, he is fired and goes to the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.—Mattias Thuresson
Plot Keywords: political thriller, journalism, 1960s, chicago, social unrest, documentary style, real events ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Hinchcliffe, the ruthless publisher of a sleazy New York tabloid, is concerned that the ethical journalistic policies of City Editor Randall have caused a drop in circulation. He pressures the newsman to run more sensational stories including resurrecting the twenty year old Vorhees Murder Case. Although the perpetrator's actions were ultimately judged justifiable, and she has been subsequently living an exemplary life in anonymity, Hunchcliffe insists Randall revisit the story. Randall assigns Isopod, an alcoholic degenerate, to dig up anything lurid that he find. The unprincipled reporter fraudulently insinuates himself into the Vorhees' home masquerading as a minister and gets the expose he sought. Yellow journalism triumphs, and a decent woman's name gets dragged through the mud again... with tragic consequences.—duke1029@aol.com
Plot Keywords: crime, thriller, drama, film noir, moral dilemma, media ethics, murder ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Philip Green is a highly respected writer who is recruited by a national magazine to write a series of articles on anti-Semitism in America. He's not too keen on the series, mostly because he's not sure how to tackle the subject. Then it dawns on him: if he was to pretend to all and sundry that he was Jewish, he could then experience the degree of racism and prejudice that exists and write his story from that perspective. It takes little time for him to experience bigotry. His anger at the way he is treated also affects his relationship with Kathy Lacy, his publisher's niece and the person who suggested the series in the first place.
Plot Keywords: drama, social issues, racial discrimination, anti-semitism, investigative journalism, moral dilemma, prejudice ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: When American military analyst, Daniel Ellsberg, realizes to his disgust the depths of the US government's deceptions about the futility of the Vietnam War, he takes action by copying top-secret documents that would become the Pentagon Papers. Later, Washington Post owner, Kay Graham, is still adjusting to taking over her late husband's business when editor Ben Bradlee discovers the New York Times has scooped them with an explosive expose on those papers. Determined to compete, Post reporters find Ellsberg himself and a complete copy of those papers. However, the Post's plans to publish their findings are put in jeopardy with a Federal restraining order that could get them all indicted for Contempt. Now, Kay Graham must decide whether to back down for the safety of her paper or publish and fight for the Freedom of the Press. In doing so, Graham and her staff join a fight that would have America's democratic ideals in the balance.
Plot Keywords: history, politics, journalism, press freedom, investigative journalism, 1970s, tom hanks ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Ex-convict Danny Kean decides to become honest as a photographer for a paper. He falls in love with Patricia, the daughter of the policeman who arrested him. Mr Nolan, her father, doesn't like that relation at first, but McLean, Kean's boss, convinces him of Kean's good nature. But Kean uses his relation to Patricia to make a photo of an execution. Due to this, Nolan loses his stripes and Kean isn't allowed to see Patricia any longer. But when one of his former friends kills two policemen, Kean sees his chance....—Stephan Eichenberg <eichenbe@fak-cbg.tu-muenchen.de>
Plot Keywords: crime, film noir, journalist, photography, moral dilemma, 1930s, american film ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Laschen, a German journalist, travels to the city of Beirut during the fights between Christians and Palestinians to produce an essay about the situation. Together with his photographer, he meets some important people and discovers the everyday face of the war. He also has to figure out about his home life, where his marriage is in a big crisis.—Benjamin Stello
Plot Keywords: war, journalist, civil war, moral dilemma, politics, violence, truth ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Surprisingly adventurous saga of an intrepid group of cinematographers and reporters who risk life and limb to capture footage of breaking news for the movie-going public.—David Spalding <dspalding@korova.com>
Plot Keywords: history, journalism, docudrama, media ethics, based on true events, brotherhood, press freedom ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Tabloid stories centered on the activities of Joyce McKinney, a former beauty queen with a self-reported IQ of 168, over her life are presented. Beyond her beauty pageant days, McKinney first hit the tabloid pages in Britain in what was largely coined "The Case of the Manacled Mormon". As reported by McKinney in interviews, she, a southern Christian originally from North Carolina, got involved with a group of Mormons in her pursuit of true love, without knowing they were Mormons or anything about Mormonism. She fell in love with one of those Mormons, Kirk Anderson, the two who were to be married. After he disappeared without saying anything to her, she, with the help of a private investigator and some male friends and new acquaintances, tracked him down in England where he was being brainwashed by Mormon elders, that brainwashing which included the notion of sex with and marriage to her, a non-Mormon, as taboo. He left with her voluntarily, she who took him away to a secluded cottage to do whatever required to get him back to the non-brainwashed Kirk she knew, which included chaining him down to a bed and having sex with him several times over the course of a few days. She was eventually charged with kidnapping among other charges, the case against her led by the Mormon church. Tabloid reporters were also involved, not so much to uncover the truth, but dig into other aspects of her life, including activities which allowed her to fund this mission of finding and retrieving Kirk, this information which in turn affected the case and its reporting. Beyond this case, McKinney, several years later, again hit the tabloids with regard to a story about her dog, Booger, which in turn renewed interest in the manacled Mormon case. In the end, McKinney vows to tell the complete side of her story through a book, which has become more difficult for her to write out of circumstance as time has gone on.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: documentary, true crime, investigation, media, scandal, uk, usa ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: During the most tumultuous time for media in generations, filmmaker Andrew Rossi gains unprecedented access to the newsroom at The New York Times. For a year, he follows journalists on the paper's Media Desk, a department created to cover the transformation of the media industry. Through this prism, a complex view emerges of a media landscape fraught with both peril and opportunity, especially at the Times itself.—Anonymous
Plot Keywords: documentary, journalism, media industry, investigative journalism, media ethics, press freedom, newsroom ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A documentary that details the creation of Julian Assange's controversial website, which facilitated the largest security breach in U.S. history.
Plot Keywords: documentary, press freedom, whistleblower, politics, investigative journalism, true story, internet ...
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