The Degree of the Impact of Watching the Movie "Spotlight" on the Attitudes of Students of Journalism and Media at Zarqa Private University towards Investigative Journalism: An Experimental Study

This study aims to find out the effect of watching the Oscar-winning movie, and several other awards, “Spotlight” on the attitudes of the third and fourth year students of journalism and media towards investigative journalism, because this film presents the work of journalist investigators and their role in uncovering a corruption case within the church. Two equivalent groups were chosen so that there are no differences attributed to the variables other than the basic variable, which is watching the film, and therefore the questionnaire was filled out by the control group, while a group view was arranged for the experimental group that contains the same number and characteristics of the control group for the “Spotlight” movie. Before the experimental group, the questionnaires were emptied to find the differences between the two groups in the answers to the questionnaire, which contained 32 items. The researcher used the arithmetic mean, standard deviation, frequencies, and percentages to describe the sample opinions about the study variable, in order to test the extent of the presence of statistically significant differences in the answers of the study sample attributable to the main variable of the students studied. The study concluded that there are statistically significant differences in students' attitudes towards investigative journalism between the two groups, and the researcher recommended the following:  The necessity of training recipients on selective exposure to media content, in order to benefit from it and to reject bad content that affects the attitudes and beliefs of the recipients.  Making use of dramatic materials in the educational process to enhance students' concepts and vocabulary.  Training youth on critical thinking by proposing and discussing some negative and positive media materials.