I have a confession. I am slightly worried that you will no longer want to hear from me after I admit this dark secret. But nevertheless, I will admit it…
I have not read the entire Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.
When I admit this to people, they give me incredulous looks and question our friendship. Yes, I was the person at Harry Potter themed events who didn’t know the difference between a quaffle and a snitch. But I promise, I started to read the Harry Potter series this past spring and just recently finished the fifth book: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
I have loved losing myself in Rowling’s magical world. In the wizarding world, I see a world from a mythological dream complete with bubbling potions and wizards wielding wands. However, I must admit that I am often discouraged to read about the journalistic world in this magical realm. And I am not the only one. A study at Baylor University pointed out the disheartening depiction of journalism in the series. “As if declines in subscription and advertising revenue weren't damaging enough, now the newspaper industry has to contend with the world of a certain bespectacled boy wizard,” said in the article about the study, “Newspapers Already Struggling – And ‘Harry Potter’ Doesn’t Help.”
In class on Tuesday, we discussed the “discipline of verification.” There is nothing that irks me more than when misunderstanding broods because of lies. Thus, the need to verify the facts, to me, is essential in good journalism. In the Harry Potter series, the newspaper, The Daily Prophet, struggles to find the truth. The paper prints quotes from sources that are high in authority, yes, but unknowledgeable. The information the paper provides does not properly educate readers. While our muggle press can be seen as an “information disseminator,” it fails to be such when it gathers faulty facts. This is not unlike how “voters sometimes understand less at their [elections] close than at their beginning!” (118).
Now, I do not like Vol… er…I mean “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.” But the person who makes me most upset in the Harry Potter series is the woman with the quill: Rita Skeeter.
Rita Skeeter, a journalist, lacks morals. With her “Quick Quotes Quill,” she distorts the truth.
Our guest speaker on Tuesday, Mr. Don Hudson, an anchor on ABC4’s “Good Morning Utah” show, discussed the need for the truth. Indeed, he said that a journalist should try to have “fair management” over their particular biases.
Rita Skeeter is not a journalist who can manage her own biases. She is a journalist who is just looking to sensationalize the news and her own name. In class, we also discussed the need for humility in journalism. Again, Rita Skeeter is not humble journalist. She is a journalist who mars the reputation of others so that her name can be on the front page. Because of her lies, confusion occurs. Indeed, it is as Walter Lippmann said, “There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the information by which to detect lies” (Elements 80).
However, there is still a new for newspapers in Rowling's magical world. In book five (spoiler alert), Hermoine reads in the newspaper that death eaters have escaped from Azkaban. When Harry hears about this, he “could not understand why his fellow students were not looking scared or at least discussing the terrible piece of news on the front page, but very few of them took the newspaper every day like Hermione” (545).
While the journalists are far from perfect and could use a refresher course in ethics (may I suggest Comms 239 to Rita?), Rowling still recognizes the importance of the media. Indeed, The Quibbler, a magazine, eventually prints the truth about Harry.
To fight against the dark lord or just troubling taxes, citizens need to be aware of current events. Media outlets have the duty to verify the facts and give readers the truth.
Yes, there are numerous Rita Skeeters in the muggle world. But I will never be one of them. Instead, I wish to be a journalist who prints the truth.
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