Synthèse-Journalisme LVA

Journalism 

The notion that I'm expected to deal with is Places and Forms of power. This notion refers to

the different kinds of power we can find in our society, indeed there' are the legislative authority, legal authority, executive power, the public opinion and even the power of the media that I’m going to deal with through the topic of journalism.

Indeed, this topic is very relevant and interesting as we can’t deny that journalists have a certain power in a democracy, and yet is the power of their words always stronger than the power of violence and oppression?

 I will illustrate this notion with 3 documents that I've chosen which seem the most relevant: as Murrow's final speech, delivered on march the 9, 1954; The heroic prison letter of Ken Saro Wiwa; and a cartoon, designed by SCHWARDP

        First of all, Edward Murrow delivered his final speech in 1954 during the red scare, to denounce Joseph McCarthy’s practices. The “red scare” was a long period in America when the population was afraid of communism. So Joseph McCarthy decided to go on a witch hunt where he would sentence innocent people during sham trials by accusing them of communism. But those accusations weren't founded, as there was no actual proof: McCarthy only exploited the fear of communism to get rid of his opponents. This way, he could manipulate the population by using their fear in order to reach his goal.

        Edward Murrow, who was then hosting a TV program, used his show called 'See It Now' to denounce McCarthy and his unfounded accusations, in order to raise people's awareness. He  started his speech by directly attacking McCarthy “it is necessary to investigate before legislating”, he said that Senator McCarthy “stepped over the very fine line between investigating and persecuting”. As we know, back then, McCarthy was leading an aggressive witch hunt against Communists, but his allegations were irrelevant and unfounded. Murrow reminds Americans that “accusation is no proof and conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law”.

        He then highlights the fact that McCarthy persecuted innocent people and organized sham trials without any proper investigation only for the purpose of getting rid of them. But Murrow explain that “he didn't create this situation of fear, he merely exploited it” which portrays McCarthy as an extremist coward, who didn't have power, but used other people’s weaknesses. That is why he also uses the word “fear”, he's saying it multiple times to point out the fact that the population should not be scared, and shouldn’t “be driven into an age of unreason”. He then unites the “nation” as “the defenders of freedom”, to open people's eyes he shows they “can not defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home”. This way he shows that Americans had to be determined not to yield to this dictatorship of fear. On the contrary, that they had to protest against these unfaire practices instead of accepting them silently and submissively: “this's no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy's methods to keep silent”.  Here Murrow reminds Americans of their responsibilities, indeed he stresses the fact that it's their duties to speak out against thses despicable acts and denounce McCarthy's illegitimate practices as a real threat to democracy and to their individual freedoms. That's why Murrow urges all his fellow citizens to take a stand and oppose their own government against the violation of their civil rights.

        He ends his speech by quoting Cassius “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves” which means that we should do something when it's time and necessary such as defying authority which is not making you a traitor.

This iconic speech made things change quickly: and contributed to McCarthy’s downfall; to put it in a nutshell the voice of a brave journalist allowed the American society to understand that they were manipulated because of their fear, that they should stop listening to the non-sense of some politicians...

         Consequently this document shows the power of words, and funded ideas pronounced by a determined journalist are stronger and can help to denounce injustice and manipulation, which leads us to our second document to even more amplify this power.

        Regarding the notion under study this document seems relevant because this is a letter from Ken Saro Wiwa, a journalist who was sentenced to death in Nigeria. The letter he wrote was sent to the Guardian in 1995 while he was imprisoned. It deals with the dictatorship in Nigeria but also his own commitment as a journalist. The main issue seems to be the sacrifice the author is ready to make to defend the truth. His goal was to be published in an international quality paper to raise awareness about the situation in his country. He surely aimed at triggering a worldwide outrage and a reaction. Nigeria was under a military dictatorship which violated freedom of speech indeed Ken was arrested for expressing his ideas. Likewise, there was no justice and no proper trial “where the proceedings leave no doubt that the judgment has been written in advance”, as a matter of fact he had to face a sham trial without a single chance of defending himself:  which  means it’s a violation of a fundamental human right. Prisoners were also not respected as humans because they endured “ weeks of starvation, months of mental torture”.

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