OPINION | Scoop (2024), "This is the story, the only story": The Role of Journalism in Unveiling Social Issues

“This is the story, the only story” - Scoop (2024 Film)

They say, there are always two sides of a coin; and in a world where social classes are evident, the other side of the coin will be the marginalized, the abused while the latter is the upper class or perhaps, the abuser. These individuals from distinct sides will always have their own story to tell – their truth. If these two clash, a story like this where oppression, power tripping, and social issues exist, journalism has an enormous role in telling us which story must be heard, and which truth will prevail.

The undeniably massive contribution of journalism has been narrated in the movie titled ‘Scoop’ (2024). It is about the the scene of how the journalism, the media personnel on BBC specifically Samantha, Emily, Esme, and Jae worked to expose the ugly truth from Prince Andrew’s mouth about his friendship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. As well as the Prince’s sexual abuse to Virginia Roberts who was a minor at that time.

The movie highlighted the struggles of the media personnel, the journalists, and the people behind the news just before they delivered a relevant story that the people needed to hear. As I watched the movie, it came to my senses that producing an impactful and relevant story as a journalist takes a lot of hard work from people behind the news. It takes passion, skills, intelligence, principles, and collaboration to do so because Journalism is a tough job, hence, its personnel must also be one.

Having said that, the movie also highlighted the characters of the three females in the media – Samantha, Emily, and Esme. Moreover, despite their misunderstanding, I admired how they were portrayed as bold, smart, and powerful females who worked together to contribute to bringing an impactful story to the world that held Prince Andrew, a man with power, accountable. Having said that, the characters of these women emphasized ‘women empowerment’ by helping one another to unveil the truth about sex trafficking and sexual abuse to young women.

The movie also stresses this line from Samantha “That’s the story, unless you change it, unless you tell us a different story. Your story in your voice”, where Samanta is pursuing Prince Andrew to go for the interview which correlates with the statement from the introduction, as also that the said interview will pave the way for the truth that is relevant for people, and specifically to the abused.

In line with this, this line from the movie and the point presented above also remind me of the issue we have faced in the Philippines. It is when the people and the media have been inviting President Marcos Jr. several times to an election interview and debate during his presidential campaign, to talk about his family’s rampant corruption and the bloody regime of his late dictator father in the 80s. However, instead of addressing this issue, Marcos Jr.'s family, particularly him, avoided talking about it, showing his disinterest in the serious issues and his confidence that he would win the election.

Aside from that, Marcos’ side has always been claiming the unfair treatment of the Philippine media to them, because it only reports the wicked side of the coin about his father’s dictatorship according to the victims, and not reporting his father’s ‘good deeds’. According to his family, they are the real victims as they were exiled to Hawaii because of the ‘yellow’ and the ‘leftists’. Other than that, they were painting the media as the ‘bad cop’ for disseminating the truth about their family’s anomalies since Marcos Sr.'s fascism. Hence, to whitewash their bloody reputation, they used the media through spreading disinformation, and historical distortion by producing a movie. Nonetheless, again, that’s the truth that they want to sustain to keep the people confused and ignorant with regards to it, and now the second Marcos was appointed as the President of the country, a mark that they finally attained what they have been working on for decades – for the power.

Nevertheless, despite the threats, killings, and suppression of Filipino journalists and the Philippine media, our journalists uphold their principles and obligation to the masses – for the truth, for a liberal country, and their citizens. Philippine journalism still finds its resilience to keep informing the public with the right information, especially about the historical dictatorship and the chronic reign of the Marcos family in the country, and our journalism has been doing it since then. Thus, amid the disinformation and lies from the Marcos family, the other side of the coin, the media still weighed the antiquated heaviness of the truth of their victims, their abuse; and that is the story, the only story that must be heard where justice has been served.

As Esme in the movie stated, “This is what the Newsnight is…Stories that need to be told, that people care about, hold the powerful account, and give victims a voice.”