scholarly journals Freedom of Expression in The Movie Spotlight as a Medium to Convey the Voices of Sexual Abuse Victims to the Public

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-29
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Carolina Gunawan

Spotlight (2015, directed by Tom McCarthy) is a docudrama which told the story of the investigation of sexual assault of young boys in Catholic Church in Boston, United States of America. A group of four journalists from The Boston Globe, called Spotlight, specialized in investigation overlooked, forgotten cases, and one of the cases is the sexual assault cases that happened inside the Catholic Church. Although their journey to seek the truth has many challenges and problems, they helped a lot of abuse victims to have courage and speak up over the tragedy that happened to them. Spotlight's realistic expression on the narration was shown through the character's dialog, which contributed to the plot of the movie itself. The meaning of "Freedom of Expression" depicted in the movie Spotlight was to symbolize the struggle of the characters, which includes the journalists and the victims, to fight for their rights. Through this movie, McCarthy wanted to help more people who were victims to speak up about their traumatic abuse. Spotlight not only could be  a technique of mental healing for victims, but also a media of advocacy for people to know, to inform and to communicate the negative aspects of victim blaming.   Keywords: Freedom of expression, docudrama, sexual abuse, victim blaming, advocacy  

1970 ◽  
pp. 8-9
Author(s):  
Lebanese American University

On March 7, 2002 the Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World, Lebanese American University along with the Public Affairs Section, Embassy of the United States of America hosted Dr. Miriam Cooke renowned writer and scholar. In her talk, Cooke shared with the audience her experience in writing on controversialsubjects pertaining to women’s issues.


1994 ◽  
Vol 19 (2-3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rolf T. Wigand ◽  
Hans-Dieter Klee

SummaryUnderstanding the priorities and workings of the mass media are a prerequisite to gaining the attention of the media and, more importantly, the cooperation of those who control access to media space and time. In addition, one needs to understand information and news filtering and gate-keeping functions carried out by the media. It is also essential to understand the interplay between reporters and their news sources and the fact that both entities have their specific priorities and agenda. In the United States of America the media’s behavior may be viewed and understood, at least in part, as the journalistic performance and exercise in the principles of the First Amendment within the Constitution. Simultaneously though the media are part of the free enterprise system, implying that they are a business whose primary motivation is to maximize profits and minimally to survive as an organization. The media, however, are not in the business of health care, medicine or public health. This contribution characterizes the health information setting in the United States of America. Relevant research has demonstrated that in the process of gaining health information by the consumer, food producers can be highly successful in influencing food-purchasing behavior and thus may have an influence on health and eating behavior. Among the issues addressed here are scientific alarmism, information confusion, disinformation, misinformation and the often resultant paradoxical behavior exhibited by the public. The knowledge gap-hypothesis is explored with regard to its appropriateness in this setting. Researchers found that short, unequivocal and positive media messages - so-called magic bullets - addressing single and relatively simple behaviors can be highly effective and that whatever advice is given should be uncomplicated and negative elements associated with the message should be avoided.It is important for scientists, medical experts and nutritionists, the media and food producers to realize that they all play a vital role in achieving broad-scale health behavior. They need to cooperate and work together to produce a set of clear, consistent, focused and positive messages based on current scientific knowledge and trends. Only then can such recommendations be communicated, understood and acted upon by the public. It is especially important to educate and inform children properly about the appropriate judgement and analysis of advertised messages pertaining to health and eating behavior questions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-274
Author(s):  
Jordan Morehouse

Scholars have examined the ways organizations practice post-crisis communication strategies, including deny, diminish, and rebuild. The current study explores the extent to which a stakeholder-formed organization utilizes post-crisis discourse of renewal to rebuild, recover, and renew the Catholic Church after allegations of sexual abuse of minors publicly surfaced in the United States. Open-ended semi-structured interviews with founders and executive committee members of Leadership Roundtable revealed stakeholders practiced discourse of renewal to help the Catholic Church, an offending organization, recover from a crisis. This study also assessed the extent to which God and religion motivated stakeholders’ responses. Results suggest religion is a critical motivating factor in stakeholders’ responses to a crisis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-62
Author(s):  
Desmond Osaretin Oriakhogba ◽  
Gloria Kanwulia Adeola-Adedipe

Conducted as a desk research, this paper examines the interface between copyright and succession laws, the notion of testamentary freedom, its limitations and justification for its restriction. The paper draws on this examination to discuss the freedom of authors to dispose their copyright under testate and intestate arrangements, and posthumously control the use of their works under the Nigerian Copyright Act. Following this discussion, the paper identifies and examines the relevant provisions of the Copyright Act that can limit the capacity of authors to posthumously control the use of their works in Nigeria. The paper contends that authors’ liberty to transfer their copyright by testamentary disposition or operation of law, and control the use of their works posthumously, without public interest friendly limitations, can create an imbalance within the copyright system. This paper addresses the issues of whether public interest objectives may be achieved through the limitation in the extant Copyright Act, especially given the propensity for copyright misuse by authors in death, as well as during their lifetime, and what policy options may align the public interest with authors’ posthumous control of copyright. In resolving these questions, the paper draws on instances of copyright misuse in the United States of America (USA) and South Africa and situates them within the Nigerian context to shed light on the issues discussed.


Author(s):  
Marc Saperstein

This chapter shows the perspective of those Jewish leaders who tried to restrict the freedom of expression of preachers when delivering sermons on controversial issues. Beginning in the thirteenth century, the chapter follows this theme into the modern period and includes the Jewish communities of the United States. It reveals a structural problem of Jewish preaching in the Middle Ages and — to a large extent — in the modern period as well. Unlike the situation in the Catholic Church, where the authority to preach was fairly strictly regulated and preaching without authorization was by its very nature a potentially heretical activity whatever the content of the sermon might be, medieval Jewish communities had no definition of who was permitted to speak from the pulpit. In theory, any male Jew who was respected enough to find a group of Jews willing to listen was entitled to deliver a sermon.


Author(s):  
Julia J. Bartkowiak

Recently, several authors have cited traditional liberal principles to argue that religious education must be offered in public schools in the United States of America. These authors claim that exposure to a variety of religious beliefs and traditions is a necessary means to attaining the two goals of providing children with "open futures" and encouraging tolerance of religious diversity. This paper contends that these arguments are seriously flawed, and provides reasons which demonstrate that, in practice, these two goals cannot be accomplished by religion courses in the public schools. Additionally, mandatory religion courses in the public schools appear to be unconstitutional and infringe on parental rights and freedom of religion. Consequently, the goals of a liberal state are best achieved by not offering religious education in the public schools.


2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 352-365
Author(s):  
Mary Jo Bane

AbstractThis article argues that the United States of America is quite different from other OECD countries in its religiosity (America is much more religious) and also in its public safety nets, which are considerably less generous and comprehensive than those of Europe. There are some institutional and ideological patterns in American religion that perhaps underlie both these tendencies. Patterns of religious life and practice in America may be part of the ‘problem’ in American responses to poverty; they may also, however, be part of the solution, and not simply because of gospel teaching. America is distinctive in the breadth, diversity and vitality of associations and charities, including religiously based voluntary organizations. The voluntary sector cannot replace the public sector, but it can, perhaps, provide the organizational foundation for the development of social conscience and civic dialogue, and a counter to the increasingly toxic political sphere. The voluntary sector may be the best hope for the emergence of an American social conscience, and may also provide an interesting framework for other nations to consider.


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