Breaking News, Breaking Down -- winner of the 2010 Cannes Independent Film Festival -- is a revealing look at how journalists continually go after breaking news, from the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to Hurricane Katrina, never imagining how it can break them down.
By chronicling for a year the publication of Penn State University's Daily Collegian -- one of the nation's leading student newspapers, with a 200-person staff and a circulation rivaling that of many small-town newspapers -- this documentary reveals the many challenges and issues with which young journalists must contend. These range from ethical considerations, sensitizing reporters and editors to diversity issues, and dealing with circulation woes, to struggling for access to news sources and, above all, trying to determine whether they should be informing or entertaining their readers.
This film looks at the work of journalist Palagummi Sainath and the article he wrote for The Times of India, detailing living conditions in the ten poorest districts of the country.