The Newsroom

Has been addicted to the show "The Newsroom" since its debut last year. The story is engaging, the cast is great and the premise is exciting. For those who haven't seen it or heard about it, it is a social political drama set inside the newsroom of a cable TV network. The main character Will McAvoy played by Jeff Daniels suffered a career set back because of a possibly medical induced rant at a public forum. To salvage his career and his news program the network invited someone who has completely different views about journalism to be his new executive producer. Together with a cast of young journalists who want to make their marks in different ways, sparks were flying all over the newsroom.

"The Newsroom" investigates the dilemma of modern journalism - should we produce socially responsible news programmes or are we responsible for a high rating programme only? The fact is great news programme don't necessarily be the highest rating programmes. Also how do balance your account book with your social responsibility? "The Newsroom" season one kicks of with these question and continued to attempt to find an answer throughout the season. Each day in the newsroom is a battle of ethics and pragmatism. Season two kicked off with a very interesting opening and started telling the story backward. It makes you want to find out what lead to the opening scene of this season. I heard Aaron Sorkin, who brought us "The West Wing"in the past, spent a lot of time in a cable network newsroom to research on and understand the subject  before production and it shows in the actual product he delivered to the audience.

Watching "The Newsroom" makes me think about my original thought of taking up journalism before moving to Australia. I did get accepted into the School of Journalism at a very good university. I was excited to get myself enrolled. This was because I felt like I was doing something meaningful with my life. I always believed that responsible journalism is the only way to keep the government and the society in check and I wanted to be part of it. But then I think life has other plans for me and so I ended up in Australia studying something else.

Fast forward to the present I am doing nothing remotely related to journalism. I am still opinionated and full of ideologies about the world. I still debate with friends about social issues from time to time. However I have mostly become one of the working masses. While I still have a lot of respect for real journalism in Hong Kong, I am mostly disappointed with the pseudo-journalism in Australia. I do not like my news time plastered with the so called WAGS of famous men and I do not like trash tabloid TV pretending themselves as current affairs programs. I nowadays only watch ABC and SBS news because they are what I would recognise as real journalism.

When I watched "The Newsroom" I appreciate that it did not shy away from any issues. They regularly questioned their own motives - "is this a personal agenda or am I really trying to uncover the truth?" "Am I thinking what's best for my career or what's best for the society?" I personally think all real journalists should do that check on themselves regularly. This is not self-censorship but self-evaluating so that what you deliver at the news desk makes a difference to the society.

I think that was what motivated me to apply for the Journalism School back then. Now I might sound naive to still have those thoughts especially when I am not a teenager who thinks I could do anything anymore. But I do still believe in the social responsibilities of each individual. That's probably why I continue to write my blog - maybe one day it would make a difference.