"Infection" discussion [spoilers]

[ruuger]

This is the discussion post for the episode 1X04, "Infection". Spoilers for the whole of the series, including the spin-offs and tie-ins, are allowed here so newbies beware.

Extra reading:

The article for "Infection" at Lurker's Guide.

Comments

[widsidh.livejournal.com]

Wiki says JMS worked as a journalist himself in addition to his other jobs (150 articles), which makes it even odder.

Not necessarily - he'll also have known a lot of inside dirt.

I know people who deal with sensitve issues, and all of them have had bad experiences with the media.

I think part of what jms is doing is not slagging off journalists as such, but highlighting the power of the media. And unfortunately nobody ever notices that when (if?) it is used to do good.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

To quote 4thofeleven from above: The reporter here serves no purpose to the story other than to show up, be unlikable, and get in the way... How dare she try and claim the people have 'a right to know' about the Ikaran weapon's attacks? Next she'll be claiming the people have a right to know about who funded the excavation of the weapon, or what happened to it after the episode!

I.e. we have the presentation of the reporter in a bad light when in fact she was doing her job. And that's a pattern on this show. Again, I don't mean an episode like The Illusion of Truth where the media is already under Clark's control, but before, and after.

And unfortunately nobody ever notices that when (if?) it is used to do good.

I'd say Watergate has burned itself into the public consciousness as a prime example of the power of the media used for good in real life. In my own country, Germany, one major incident in the early 60s was when the secretary of state had a reporter and an editor arrested in Spain (where they were vacationing) for a story the magazine Der Spiegel had printed. This, the "Spiegel Affair", ended with the secretary of state dismissed (and the journalist freed, of course), and was celebrated as a victory for the relatively young post WWII democracy.

[widsidh.livejournal.com]

I'd say Watergate has burned itself into the public consciousness as a prime example of the power of the media used for good in real life. etc.

Fair point - I amend "never" to "rarely"...

BTW:

The reporter here serves no purpose to the story

Arguably, her purpose is to be the trigger for Sinclair's speech at the end.
Not very good writing to have character with nothing but an extra-textual function, though...

[dqbunny.livejournal.com]

Not only this, but I think the reporter also serves as a reminder that Sinclair's actions are being viewed by people off station, as we get reminded increasingly as the series goes forward. With other sci-fi shows, you have the sense that everything takes place inside a bubble and that the actions of the staff are largely ignored in the outside world - but this is the first time in B5 where we see that Sinclair's decisions do have an impact beyond the station.

[beatrice_otter]

Also, Western media today tends to be very heavily slanted towards certain ideological perspectives. Now, there's no such thing as truly objective; everyone has a point of view, and in the case of journalists it influences both what stories they search out and how they tell them. Certainly, there are many journalists whose perspectives don't fit the normal politics/ideology for the media, but overall there's a definite slant. (It's why it's so important to get multiple points of view--no matter how fair and balanced and objective you try to be, no one can truly be objective.) Someone with a different perspective who tried to go against the grain (as JMS probably found himself) might not have had a very good experience, depending on where and when he was working in the field.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

But I think the problem, at least with this particular episode, is that there's no indication that the journalist has any particular slant or bias or insidious agenda or anything like that. The very fact that she wants to do a story on B5 is taken as evidence she's an annoyance.

[beatrice_otter]

Yeah. I was speaking of a reason JMS might be biased against reporters even given that he was one, and not referring to this episode's reporter specifically. Sorry for being unclear!

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

Oh, gotcha. Sorry!