Film Analysis of "Spotlight": A Historical Scandal Like No Other

It took 30 years to uncover a scandal so fowl, it made major history. The 2015 film, Spotlight, depicts an investigation reporting unit taking on the mission of finding the truth about the 1970s scandal of over 90 priests in the Boston area accused of molesting children. A small group of journalists and editors come together to uncover the mystery by interviewing victims, trying to get in contact with some of the priests, and talking to the lawyers involved in the situation. Throughout the film, many dynamics of communication of being in a small group such as formal roles, systems theory, and advantages and disadvantages helped develop the group to accomplishing their goal of uncovering the child molestation and cover-up scandal within the local Catholic Archdiocese.

The first dynamic of small groups that led the investigation reporting unit, Spotlight, to its victory was assigning formal roles. As stated in the Communication Matters textbook on page 212, formal roles are defined as “specifically assigned to people to help the group to fulfill its mission.” In the film, the small group from Spotlight consisted of six members that each had their own designated role in order to get the task done. Mark Baron was the editor in chief, who was the one who decided to take on this specific investigation in the first place. Next, Walter Robinson was the editor, with his assistant managing editor, Ben Bradlee Jr., by his side helping him with his tasks. Lastly, there are the three journalists Michael Rezendes, Sacha Pfeiffer, and Matt Carroll, who mainly are assigned to interview the victims and have meetings with the lawyers to uncover information. The result of assigning formal roles in the small group was only the start to the investigation team coming to a victory.

The next dynamic of small groups that led Spotlight to its succession was grasping the responsibility of the systems theory. As stated in the Communication Matters textbook on page 209, systems theory is defined as “Members of a small group are also interdependent in the sense that each one affects and is affected by every other member in some way.” Throughout the film, the team did have knowledge that any decisions made by an individual in the group could potentially affect the entire groups outcome. Towards the end of the film, Michael Rezendes, one of the groups journalists, thought it was time to publish the story before another investigating reporting unit would publish it first. When he brought this idea up with the rest of the group, the editor, Walter Robinson, turned him down because before publishing they needed the rest of the information. This caused Michael to lash out at one of the group meetings. Fortunately, he didn’t lash out too much because he realized if he would have published the story without the rest of the groups consent, their would be major consequences for the rest of the group. The mature decision made by Michael made this small group much stronger pushing them even further to their success.

Lastly, the final dynamic of small groups that led Spotlight to its victory were the advantages and disadvantages of being in a small group. Small groups come with benefits and challenges, but not all challenges are negative. Some advantages of being in a small group include providing resources and experiencing synergy. As stated in the Communication Matters textbook on page 223, synergy is defined as “a collaboration that produces more than the sum of its parts.” Having six members in the group allows the benefit of not putting all the work onto one person, each person has their own job and they can get done the task a lot more efficiently. Some disadvantages of being in a small group include making sacrifices and experiencing conflict. During a conversation in the film between Michael and Walter, Michael talks about how his wife doesn't approve of him constantly working around the clock to get his job done, rather than taking some time off to spend with his family. Although this may be a benefit for the group to get the job done faster, it is sacrificing Michaels relationship with his family. The benefit of having advantages and positive disadvantages in the small group gave the group such a strong dynamic to succeeding at their mission.

In conclusion, throughout the 2015 film, Spotlight, many dynamics of communication of being in a small group such as formal roles, systems theory, and advantages and disadvantages helped develop the group to accomplishing their goal of uncovering the child molestation and cover-up scandal within the local Catholic Archdiocese. Formal roles were assigned to each group member in order to get the job done at a quicker pace and in an organized way. Systems theory was taken into account in there group when Michael was ready to lash out. Lastly, advantages and disadvantages of small groups were the final pieces that led Spotlight to publishing the truth.