morning glory

At first glance we meet a bright-eyed, naive (dare we say overly optimistic?) 28-year-old woman trying to make it big in the television industry. Underneath it all, once you scrape the surface, are important themes that resonate with our daily work lives.

How do you manage work-life balance? Have you ever wanted something so badly that you simply couldn’t give it up no matter how much everyone was prodding you to? And how have you dealt with difficult co-workers, bosses or even people you managed?

Introducing Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams), a hard-working TV producer who’s fired from a local news program in New Jersey. As she stumbles onto a job at the last place national morning news show, she’s given a new start, an empty canvas, if you will, to make her mark. First, she needs to be taken seriously by her cast and makes the first big decision to give the show a shot in the arm by bringing on legendary TV anchor Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford). The “Dan Rather-type” character wants to have nothing of it. Diane Keaton’s character, Colleen Peck, is a former beauty queen and longtime morning show personality who has made a career of covering the typically soft news of the morning show.

As their personalities clash, you can’t help but wonder: Have you also ever been in the workplace and felt something similar? Have you been on a team and yet simply refused (or perhaps wished you could refuse) to not do certain things?

As Becky tries to boost ratings on her fledgling show, she also manages to find love (or perhaps we can say it finds her). Through McAdams’ comedic timing we can’t help but relate to her as she tries to “shut off” work after hours (One effective strategy pointed out in the film — put the Blackberry in the refrigerator as soon as you walk in the door!).

Morning Glory is an entertaining movie that will make you think, but most of all it will make you smile.

As Becky struggles with her career and love life in an effort to make it in the always buzzing New York City, McAdams simply dazzles.

Screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna’s quick-witted, razor sharp dialogue and Morning Glory director Roger Michell’s brisk pace will keep you fixated on these characters, their quirks, and oh yes, their will to survive as the colorful characters walk into the sunset.

Importance of morning news programming both in the US and in the Philippines

Based on what I have watched, News is important and it has to be disseminated on time, whatever the cost may be. I remember Becky Fuller, the executive producer of the morning news Daybreak, sacrificed her pleasure to meet with Mike Polmeroy, news anchor of the show and convince him to appear on the rehearsal on time; I think it was 1:30 in the morning, when they arrived at the office and work with the other staff.

They really have to work hard, research for raw materials and deliver it to the audience that it came to point that they forget their own desires. I may say that these people are also heroes for sacrificing much effort and time in order to serve the people who patronize their show.

One more thing is the way they manage their specific tasks and time during their first meeting, when altogether talks about their own concerns and areas but the executive producer managed to fix their recommendations. And the moment when she fired one of Daybreak’s anchor only shows that in the field of media, you have to be persistent, hardworking and your raw materials should be appealing to the public and with sense.

Cultural Approach to Organization

Broadcasting is different from journalism, Media Filming is different with Advertising and same with Evening News is different from Morning program. They have their own cultures, jargons and approach.

For example, Mike Polmeroy does not want to accept the offer of Miss Fuller to be the anchor of the show Daybreak and doubt the they cannot insert news on morning shows because as we can see, these includes how to bake, travels, fashion, weather forecast. What Polmeroy thinks about the morning news is just kind of leisure time that will make your day a good start and soothing.

Unlike on the Evening news, based on what I have seen on Philippine television, which I believe is the same with United States, this is where crimes, disaster, important events are shown. It has something to do with life, hard news. Moreover, Polmeroy thinks that it is not applicable to be shown on morning news because of its different approach.

In this case, we can see the difference of soft to hard news. Then, Becky Fuller crossed the line and did what she thinks is best and something that will make their ratings improved. Soon enough convinced Polmeroy to anchor the program. She believes that they could deliver news fresh and be the one to cover it just like what Polmeroy did when he covered the arrest of the governor and made their rating and perspective on morning news into a blast.

Semiotics

Semiotics is the study of signs. I have seen different usage of time in this movie. One of them is the use of sunrise in the image of Daybreak and coffees on top of the table of news anchors, which signifies that the show is aired in the morning.

Another thing is when they use to start the program after commercial, the production assistant will just prepare his finger and count 1, 2, 3… with the use of his hand signals and whatever the anchors do, they have to stop it and proceed to the program.

Face-Negotiation

Morning Glory is an American film and United States is an example of Individualistic Culture wherein they place greater importance on individual face than on the group face. It stands for “I-identity” and assumes that every person is unique and reduced uncertainty by asking questions.

However, individuals within a culture—particularly one that is ethnically diverse—differ in these images of self as well as varied views on the degree to which they give others face or restore their own face in conflict situations.

Individualistic culture focus on their self-face just like the co-anchor of Mike Polmeroy that even though her partner is not performing well, she still does her job correctly, that there should be nothing wrong at least on herself even though the people around her is not. And also when they had a fight, their faces after it came back to original with calm resemblance, happy delivering the news.

Some of the Face-Negotiation Theory’s five distinct responses are also shown in the movie, the obliging, where Miss Fuller tries to give whatever Polmeroy wants; Avoiding, they tried to withdraw from opening irrelevant discussion to prevent conflict; dominating, they compete with other in order to win and sustain the program.