Spotlight – Sociologial Theories 1 “When the Boston Globe’s tenacious “Spotlight” team of reporters delves into allegations of abuse in the Catholic Church, their year-long investigation uncovers a decades-long cover up at the highest levels of Boston’s religious, legal, and government establishment, touching off a wave of revelations around the world” (Road, n.d.). Spotlight is a movie based on real-life events that occurred in 2001and it shows the viewers the obstacles that these investigators had to endure while trying to uncover the dirty truth about the Archdiocese in Boston. This movie has three sociological theories which are Structural-Functional, Symbolic Interaction, and Social Conflict. Spotlight is a team of five investigators,
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The first one that I will touch on is the Structural-Functional theory and how it applies in this movie. Structural-Functional theory as stated by textbook says, “is a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability” (Macionis, 2015). This theory is apparent when it comes to the relationship that the Church has with the community of Boston. A majority of Bostonians are Catholics and are members of the Catholic Church. While The Boston Globe is suing the Church for files that have been sealed a ripple effect begins to happen in the community. Police officers don’t want to talk against Cardinal Law and lawyers are also afraid of the church because they are worried about being bullied by the Church. Eric MacLeish finally spoke with Sacha and Mike and told them some disturbing news. He told them that in the 1990’s he represented 100’s of victims who had been sexually abused by priests in the area. He settled with the Church on all of these cases outside of the courtroom in order to get …show more content…
“Symbolic-Interaction is a framework for building theory that sees society as the product of the everyday interactions of individuals” (Macionis, 2015). In the movie the Spotlight team speaks with a survivor named Phil Saviano. During the interview Phil explains that he felt like a “chosen one” because the priest was giving him attention, he felt special. He said Father David Holley started out slowly by first telling dirty jokes, then advancing to pornographic magazines, then progressing to masturbation. He said, “How do you say no to God?” (McCarthy, 2015). These children trusted their priests and trusted that they would protect them. They were able to trick these children because they wore the
The first one that I will touch on is the Structural-Functional theory and how it applies in this movie. Structural-Functional theory as stated by textbook says, “is a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability” (Macionis, 2015). This theory is apparent when it comes to the relationship that the Church has with the community of Boston. A majority of Bostonians are Catholics and are members of the Catholic Church. While The Boston Globe is suing the Church for files that have been sealed a ripple effect begins to happen in the community. Police officers don’t want to talk against Cardinal Law and lawyers are also afraid of the church because they are worried about being bullied by the Church. Eric MacLeish finally spoke with Sacha and Mike and told them some disturbing news. He told them that in the 1990’s he represented 100’s of victims who had been sexually abused by priests in the area. He settled with the Church on all of these cases outside of the courtroom in order to get …show more content…
“Symbolic-Interaction is a framework for building theory that sees society as the product of the everyday interactions of individuals” (Macionis, 2015). In the movie the Spotlight team speaks with a survivor named Phil Saviano. During the interview Phil explains that he felt like a “chosen one” because the priest was giving him attention, he felt special. He said Father David Holley started out slowly by first telling dirty jokes, then advancing to pornographic magazines, then progressing to masturbation. He said, “How do you say no to God?” (McCarthy, 2015). These children trusted their priests and trusted that they would protect them. They were able to trick these children because they wore the