RECOMMENDED BOOKS, ARTICLES
AND WEB SITES

There has not been much written on the image of journalists in movies, television, radio or fiction. The IJPC hopes to rectify this in the future.

In the meantime, the Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture recommends the following books, articles and Web sites.

Please e-mail us at saltzman@usc.edu if you have any additional recommendations for this resources page.

Updated: 4-2008

POPULAR CULTURE

Analyzing the Images of the Journalist in Popular Culture: A Unique Method of Studying the Public's Perception of Its Journalists and the News Media: “A long-neglected, fertile field for research virtually untapped by journalism and mass communication scholars”by Joe Saltzman, Professor of Journalism, Director of the Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture (IJPC), A Project of the Norman Lear Center, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California. By analyzing the images of the journalist in popular culture over the centuries, the researcher can offer a new perspective on the history of journalism as well as the delicate relationship between the public and its news media. The anger and lack of confidence most of the public has in the news media today is partly based on real-life examples they have seen and heard, but much of the image of the journalist is based on images burned into the public memory from movies, TV and fiction. These images of the journalist have an enormous influence on how the public perceives and judges the news media and they have a profound effect on public opinion and consequently, the public’s support of the effectiveness and freedom of the news media. Many of these images come from age-old sources, long forgotten yet still relevant in the 21st century. Variations of this paper were delivered at the “Media History and History in the Media” conference at the University of Wales, March 31-April 1, 2005 at Gregynog, Wales, and at the Association for Education for Journalism and Mass Communications (AEJMC) in San Antonio, Texas, August 12, 2005.

FILMS

Click Here for Alphabetized List of Authors on Journalists in Movies

Richard R. Ness's From Headline Hunter to Superman: A Journalism Filmography is by far the best book yet written on the journalist in film. Published in October 1997, it is a superb guide to more than 2,100 feature films dealing with journalism, the definitive reference book on the image of the journalist in film. It is available from Scarecrow Press (www.scarecrowpress.com). Also "From a Voice in the Night to a Face in the Crowd, the Rise and Fall of the Radio Film" by Richard R. Ness, Western Illinois University. Paper delivered at the AEJMC Conference in San Francisco, August 2006. It is no mere coincidence that Hollywood conversion to sound coincided with the development of radio as a major force for both information and entertainment.That radio provided not only a source of competition but also a potential form of promotion for the motion picture industry led to an often uneasy alliance between the two media, and, as with the newspaper profession, Hollywood demonstrated a love-hate relationship in its depiction of radio and its practitioners.

IJPC Needs Your Help. Click here for a list of films we still are attempting to locate as part of our research for the Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture project. The films are listed first alphabetically and then by year of release. If anyone knows of sources for any of these titles (including video and film sources, as well the availability of copies in archives), please contact Dr. Richard Ness, Associate Director of the IJPC, at RR-Ness@wiu.edu. Any assistance is greatly appreciated. Revised 8-2006.

Howard Good, coordinator of the journalism program at the State University of New York at New Paltz, is one of the few scholars in America who writes about the subject and has written three books dealing with the journalist in film: Outcasts: The Image of Journalists in Contemporary Film (1989); Girl Reporter: Gender, Journalism and Movies (1998), and The Drunken Journalist: The Biography of a Film Stereotype. All are recommended, filled with information available nowhere else. They are available from Scarecrow Press. (www.scarecrowpress.com). Good's latest book, written with Michael J. Dillon, professor of communications at Duquesne University, is Media Ethics Goes to the Movies (Praeger Publishers, CT, 2002).

Also worth ferreting out is Loren Ghiglione's The American Journalist: Paradox of the Press (Library of Congress, Washington, DC, 1990), written for a Library of Congress exhibit on the image of the journalist. Dr. Ghiglione is dean of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern.

Fact or Fiction: Hollywood Looks at the News. An essay by Loren Ghiglione, Dean of the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, and Joe Saltzman, Director of the IJPC and Associate Dean, USC Annenberg School for Communication -- © Loren Ghiglione/Joe Saltzman 2002

The American Journalist: Fictions Versus Fact. An essay by Loren Ghiglione, Dean of the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University. ©American Antiquarian Society, 1991.

Frank Capra and the Image of the Journalist in American Film. "The first book of the IJPC project, Frank Capra and the Image of the Journalist in American Film, sets a precedent of excellence in scholarship, writing, and readability, serving academics, students, and film aficionados alike ...Academics will find it a valuable resource, especially if teaching a course that examines the image of the journalist, a Capra course, or even a film genres course." Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Spring 2003.

Frank Capra and the Image of the Journalist in American Film USC Literary Luncheon Speech, March 27, 2002, Doheny Memorial Library © Joe Saltzman

Matthew C. Ehrlich's book, Journalism in the Movies (University of Illinois Press), is an excellent summary suitable for class use. For more information, see an Article-Review on the book: "Journalism through the camera's eye: Book looks at how Hollywood shapes our views of the press." Ehrlich, associate professor at the University of Illinois Department of Journalism, has studied and written about journalism movies for 13 years and has been an invaluable resource to the IJPC.

Facts, Truth and Bad Journalists in the Movies by Matthew C. Ehrlich in Journalism, Vol. 7, No. 4, 501-519 (2006) © Sage Publications 2006. Scholars have called for cultural analyses of the press that are more attuned to journalists’ self-image as disciples of facts and truth while also critically examining the contradictions within that self-image. Popular representations of journalism such as motion pictures are one fruitful site of inquiry. This article studies American movies’ depictions of ‘bad journalists’, characters who in many ways contradict the image of upstanding professionalism that the press tries to promote. Although real-life journalists over the years have often objected to such portrayals, ‘bad journalist’ characters still have helped shore up the press’s preferred self-image, either by seeing through lies and pretense to the truth or by paying the price for not telling the truth.

Hollywood and the Journalistic Truthtelling by Matthew C. Ehrlich, Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This article was published in the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy, 19(2), 2005: 519-539. Ehrlich's book Journalism in the Movies (2004) was published by the University of Illinois Press. The article looks at what has been called the paramount principle of journalism -- truthtelling -- as it is depicted in a movie about a notorious real-life case of journalistic deception: Shattered Glass, the story of Stephen Glass who in 1998 was fired for fabricating more than two dozen stories for the New Republic magazine.

Other excellent writings on the subject by Ehrlich include "Journalism in Movies," Critical Studies in Mass Communication, Vol. 14, 1997, pp. 267-281, a critical overview of the genre; "Thinking Critically about Journalism Through Popular Culture," Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, Vol. 50, No. 4, 1996, pp.35-51, a documentation of a class on the subject taught by Ehrlich, and "The Romance of Hildy Johnson: The Journalist as Mythic Hero in American Cinema," Studies in Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 12, 1991, pp. 89-104.

An extensive, but unpublished, survey of journalists in film was compiled by Maxwell Taylor Courson, The Newspaper Movies: An Analysis of the Rise and Decline of the News Gatherer as a Hero in American Motion Pictures, 1900-1974: a Dissertation submitted to the Graduate Division of the University of Hawaii in partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in American Studies, August, 1976. It's available from UMI Dissertation Express, Order No. 7702805.

With Pad and Pencil: Old Stereotypes in a New Form? A comparison of the Image of the Journalist in the Movies from 1930-1949 and 1990-2004, thesis submitted by Wibke Ehlers, 2006, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Mass Communication in the University of Canterbury. The thesis aims to provide an insight into the stereotypical imagery of journalists on the screen and its changes in popular culture, namely in film.

Movie Journalists: Hello Hollywood by Sarah Niblock, Brunel University, London in the British Journalism Review, Vol.18, No. 1 69-75 (2007). Journalists on film have for decades offered fantasy, fun and escapism to millions, but most of the movies have emerged from Hollywood. And that could be changing now that three new high-profile British-led or inspired productions are in the pipeline.

Stephen Vaughn and Bruce Evensen, "Democracy's Guardians: Hollywood's Portrait of Reporters, 1930-1945," Journalism Quarterly, Vol. 68, No. 4, 1991, pp. 829-838, looks at PCA files to see how the newspaper industry tried to influence depictions of the press in the movies.

Thomas H. Zynda, "The Hollywood Version: Movie Portrayals of the Press," Journalism History, Vol. 6, No. 1, 1979, pp. 16-25, 32, is a scholarly overview of how movies have depicted journalism up to 1979.

Brooks Robards' "Newshounds and Sob Sisters: The Journalist Goes to Hollywood," in Beyond the Stars: Stock Characters in American Popular Film (by Paul Loukides and Linda K. Fuller, Bowling Green State University Popular Press, Bowling Green, Ohio, 1990, pp. 131-145) is a well-done, if brief, survey.

Jane Baum's "The Female Journalist in American Film, 1930-1949," 1983. University of Rochester.

Pauline Kael's "Raising Kane," 1971, in The Citizen Kane Book (Limelight Edition, 1984. Pp. 3 to 84.) offers Kael's observations on the journalist in film in her essay on what many consider the greatest American film ever made.

Bonnie S. Brennen's From Headline Shooter to Picture Snatcher, the construction of photojournalists in American Film, 1928-1939. Brennen was chair of the department of journalism at Temple University's School of Communications and Theater. Her research project focuses on the construction of photojournalists in 20 American films, in which photojournalists and cameramen appear as central characters, produced during the late 1920s and 1930s.

Malice in Wonderland: Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons in Hollywood by Bonnie Brennen, Temple University. Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper were powerful, unconventional women who ruled Hollywood at a time when women were still considered second-class citizens. Thriving amid glamour and wealth, these gossip columnists, with a readership of about 75 million, could make or break the career of an aspiring actor, writer, or director.

Norma Green's The Front Page on Film as Case Study of American Journalism Mythology in Motion, is an excellent Ph.D. dissertation on the subject, Mass Media at Michigan State University, Fall, 1993. The University Microfilm Order No. is 9418000.

Norma Green's "Press Dress: The Beige Brigade of Movie Journalists Outdoors," in Beyond the Stars, edited by Paul Loukides and Linda K. Fuller, pp. 65-76 (Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1990).

Larry Langman's The Media in the Movies: A Catalog of American Journalism Films, 1900-1996 (McFarland & Company, 1998) is eclipsed by Ness' book, but it offers another comprehensive view of the image of the journalist in American films.

Thomas C. Leonard's News for All: America's Coming-Of-Age with the Press (Oxford University Press, 1995) includes a chapter about journalism movies.

James Harvey's Romantic Comedy in Hollywood, from Lubitsch to Sturges (Da Capo Press, 1998 paper edition) includes material on screwball newspaper films.

Robert Brent Toplin's History of Hollywood: The Use and Abuse of the American Past (University of Illinois Press, 1996) is a collection of essays including one on All the President's Men.

John Gregory Dunne's Monster: Living Off the Big Screen (Vintage Books paper edition, 1998) gives the backstage story on how he and his wife, Joan Didion, adapted Up Close and Personal from the Jessica Savitch story.

Crime, Romance and Sex: Washington Women Journalists in Recent Popular Fiction by Stacy L. Spaulding, assistant professor of journalism, Columbia Union College and Maurine H. Beasley, Professor of Journalism, Philip Merrill College of Journalism. This study of 13 novels portraying Washington women journalists finds their portrayals have improved since 1990 when one authority concluded that most novels showed women as "unfulfilled unfortunates." The fictional women in this study, featured most prominently in detective stories, are eager to expose male corruption to further their careers but make little effort to change underlying social causes. These women are searching for relationships, but their careers still take precedence

Mediated Dialogue: HBO'S Live From Baghdad was presented at the WSCA Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico in February, 2004. The writers, Arthur W. Herbig IV and Kelly Parker, are master’s students at Saint Louis University. The paper takes a look at the film that focuses on CNN’s media revolution and the sudden impact of 24-hour news reporting from the Persian Gulf War. The movie examines the roles media play in how the public understands and interprets broadcast news. This paper examines media roles in encouraging and mediating dialogue since media criticism often neglects dialogue as one of its components. In doing so, the authors examine Live from Baghdad to determine what it says about public dialogue. .

Print (and Video) to Screen: Journalism in Motion Pictures of the 1990s
by Paul Steinle, Department of Communication, Southern Oregon University. Presented at the Popular Culture/American Culture Conference in New Orleans, April, 2000. Updated, October 22, 2002. © Paul Steinle

Sweat Not Melodrama: Reading the Structure of Feeling in All the President's Men, by Bonnie Brennen, associate professor, Missouri School of Journalism. This essay suggests that the most famous chronicle of this political scandal codifies an ideology of journalism that has framed an understanding of the role of the press in the United States and Western Europe since the 1970s. Copyright 2003 by SAGE Publications.

Matt Slovick of the Washington Post has two good articles on Journalists in the Movies and All The President's Men.

Democracy's Guardians: Hollywood's Portrait of Reporters, 1930-1945 by Stephen Vaughn and Bruce Evensen, Journalism Quarterly 68:829-38.

In Journalism and Mass Communication, UC Berkeley under Images of Journalism and the Media in the Movies, there is a good listing of movies and references.

Glenn Garelik's "Stop the Presses: Movies Blast Media. Viewers Cheer" is about movie portrayals of journalists that reflect changes in the news media industry. New York Times, Jan. 31, 1993.

Debra Gersh's "Stereotyping Journalists: Whether in Movies from the 1930s or the 1980s, newspeople are usually portrayed as rude, divorced, hard-drinking, cigarette-smoking misfits." Editor & Publisher, Oct. 5, 1991.

Clyde Haberman's "A Version of My Job, Made for TV" (Television Portrayals of Journalists). The New York Times, Oct. 7, 2000.

Christopher Hanson's "Where Have All the Heroes Gone?" (Journalists are no longer portrayed as Heroes). Columbia Journalism Review, March-April, 1996.

Bill Mahon's "Portrayal of Journalists in Movies." Editor & Publisher, Oct. 1, 1994.

Brooks Robards, "Newshounds and Sob Sisters: The Journalist Goes to Hollywood," in Beyond the Stars: Stock Characters in American Popular Film edited by Paul Loukides and Linda K. Fuller, pp. 131-145. (Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press).

Chip Rowe, "Hacks on Film" discusses portrayals of reporters by television and film including filmography of best films about journalism. Washington Journalism Review, November, 1992.

Carl Sessions, "Film Dour" is about journalism portrayed in motion pictures. American Journalism Review, January, 2000, pg 56.

Gerald Stone and John Lee's "Portrayal of Journalists on Prime Time Television." Journalism Quarterly, Winter 1990, pgs. 829-838.

Bernard Weintraub's "Bad Guys, Good Guys: Journalists in the Movies," an analysis of how journalists are portrayed in motion pictures. Living Arts Pages, The New York Times, Oct. 13, 1997.

Media Alliance board member and media worker MiHi Ahn lists her Top 10 Best Movies About the Media in a special MediaFile.

Poynter.org's Dr. Ink offers a list of media movies compiled by David Shedden, the Poynter librarian.

The Detroit Free Press offers a nicely designed Web site on journalism movies. It is an attractive introduction to the subject.

Reporters usually show up in horror films. Joe Winters explores the subject in "The Monsters Meet the Press."

Malcolm Johnson takes an entertaining look at female journalists in movies in "When the News is Bad for Women" appearing in The Age, Melbourne, Australia, June 10, 2002

A student publication of the Lemke Journalism Department at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Observations, offers an article by Casey Pittman, In the Movies, Journalists Are No Longer Heroes -- Just Like Everywhere Else. A Large Majority of the American Public Feels The Press No Longer Deals Fairly With Issues.

Mark Bowden, “When the Front Page Meets the Big Screen,” The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 293, No. 2, March 2004, p. 146 (5 pgs, 3016 words): “Hollywood is not a reliable moral arbiter of anything, so it’s not surprising that when it holds a mirror up to journalism, Shattered Glass, is the result." Bowden, who is a national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, writes: “Given how poorly journalists usually fare in opinion polls (ranking somewhere near tax collectors), and how plainly their excesses figure in history and in daily life, it is remarkable what a staunch ally the profession seems to have in Hollywood. The reporter may be even more of a celluloid staple than the private detective.” The article is mostly a personal analysis of Absence of Malice and All the President’s Men in relationship to Shattered Glass. It includes a summary of films about journalism and what they have meant to the author.

Giorgio Gosetti, Jean-Michel Frodon, Alain Bergala's "Print the Legend: Cinema and Journalism," Paris, Cahiers du cinema. Locarno. Festival Internazationale del film del Locarno, 2004. Buffalo State College Library has a copy.

Court-TV's 15 Most Memorable Movie Journalists lists its favorite compelling cinematic newshounds.

Jeremy Martin's "No Cheering for the Press Box: The Stereotypes of Sports Journalists in Film," California State University, Fresno, Department of Mass Communication and Journalism, Thesis-Dissertation, 2004.

Caroline Graham Austin's"Pressing Issues: Fictional Women Journalists in American Film," Thesis-Dissertation, 1996. University of Notre Dame Library.

Carol Maria McCarthy's "Idiots, Scoundrels and Screwballs: The Image of Journalists in Popular American Film," Thesis-Dissertation, 1991, University of Maryland, College Park.

Bill Bilodeau's "Portrayals of Journalists in Academy Award-Nominated Films, 1927-1993: A Qualitative Analysis," Thesis-Dissertation, 1994. University of South Florida.

Barbara A. Brucker's "The Journalist as Popular Hero or 'Up in the Sky, It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Clark Kent," Thesis-Dissertation, 1980. . Bowling Green State University.

Charles E. McKenzie's "The Reel World: A Study of Cinematic Journalists and What They Might Teach Audiences About Journalism," Thesis-Dissertation. 2001. University of South Florida Library.

Cinemateca Portuguesa's "Jornalismo e cinema," Lisboa Expresso: Cinemateca Portuguesa, 1993. Yale University Library. Indiana University Library. Boston Public Library

Kyle Ross McDaniel's "Reviewing the Image of the Photojournalist in Film: How Ethical Dilemmas Shape Stereotypes of the On-Screen Press Photographer in Motion Pictures from 1954 to 2006," a thesis presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri-Columbia, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts, August 2007.

Favorite Journalism Films Listing. Newscoach list of movies. No Train, No Pain Web Site.

THE RETURN OF THE SOB SISTER IN 'SUPERMAN RETURNS': LOIS LANE AND THE FIGHT FOR TRUTH AND JUSTICE by Mary-Lou Galician, a faculty member at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication.

I Wish I Were Lois Lane by Simone Gianarelli, a Trobe University Media studies student who wrote this article about female journalists in movies.

TELEVISION

Click Here for Alphabetized List of Authors on Journalists in Television

A comprehensive book covering all the prime time network television programs including ones featuring journalists is Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows, 1946-Present, Seventh Edition, completely revised and updated, Ballantine Books, New York, 1999, 1392 pages.

Douglass K. Daniel's Lou Grant: The Making of TV's Top Newspaper Drama (Syracuse University Press, 1996) explores the history of the medium's most-respected journalism series and how it depicted the profession. It contains an overview of journalism dramas up to the debut of Lou Grant as well as a synopsis of each of the 114 episodes that aired from 1977-1982.

Robert S. Alley and Irby B. Brown's Love Is All Around: The Making of the Mary Tyler Moore Show (a Delta Book published by Dell Publishing, Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc., New York, 1989, 235 pages paperback). The same authors also wrote Murphy Brown: Anatomy of a Sitcom (Dell, 1990, 304 pages). Each book discusses the making of the television programs "from original idea to script, casting and pilot." Plot summaries included.

Aralynn Ann Abare McMane's "Hello, Handsome, Get Me Rewrite: Toward an Understanding of the Portrayal of the Female Journalist in Film and on Television." 1991.

Diana Meehan's Ladies of the Evening: Women Characters of Prime-Time Television, The Scarecrow Press, 1983, 192 pages.

NOVELS AND SHORT STORIES

Click Here for Alphabetized List of Authors on Journalists in Novels and Short Stories

Howard Good's Acquainted with the Night: The Image of Journalists in American Fiction, 1890-1930, is the definitive book on the image of the journalist in fiction (The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Metuchen, N.J. & London, 1986, 139 pages).. Also, Good's "The Image of War Correspondents in Anglo-American Fiction," Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 1986, Journalism Monograph, pp. 1-25.

Loren Ghiglione's The American Journalist: Paradox of the Press (Library of Congress, Washington, DC, 1990), written for a Library of Congress exhibit on the image of the journalist, is one of the best resources for novels about journalism and journalists.

Steve Weinberg, formerly a professor of journalism at the University of Missouri, started collecting novels of and by journalists in 1983. He presented his collection to the University of Missouri-Columbia Libraries in 1989 and periodically supplements the collections with new additions. There are more than 830 volumes in the collection. All titles are cataloged and available through MERLIN, the University's online catalog. His articles on the subject include "My Great White Whale, or the Great Newspaper Novel," for New York Times (Aug. 27, 1989, sec. 7, p. 1) and The Reporter in the Novel by Steve Weinberg (Columbia Journalism Review, v 36, pp. 17-18, November-December, 1997. Since I started collecting novels with journalists as protagonists, I have acquired some 1,300 of them, of some 2,300 out there....In fact, I worry a lot about the unrealistic picture a nonjournalist must take away from these novels: according to most of them, we lack an ethical center, sleep regularly with sources, and solve so many crimes, especially murders, that it is a wonder the police have anything to do."

James Geraty Harrison, American Newspaper Journalism as Described in American Novels of the 19th century, Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina, 1945.
Also, James G. Harrison's "Nineteenth-Century American Novels on American Journalism I," Journalism Quarterly, September 1945, Volume 22, Number 3, pp. 215-224, and "Nineteenth-Century American Novels on American Journalism II," Journalism Quarterly, December 1945, Volume 22, Number 4, pp. 335-345.

Margaret Klein, "Journalists in Some Nineteenth Century Fiction," Thesis-Dissertation. 1929. OCLC: 56156160. Columbia University Libraries, New York.

Thomas Elliott Berry's, The Newspaper in the American Novel, 1900-1969, The Scarecrow Press, Inc., Metuchen, N.J. 1970, 170 pages.

William McKeen's Heroes and Villains: A Study of Journalists in American Novels Published Between 1915 and 1975, Indiana University, 1977 (submitted to the faculty of the Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Masters of Arts Degree in the School of Journalism, Indiana University, August, 1977. p. 1-121). Also, "Tough Guys with Typewriters," Studies in Popular Culture, Spring, 1980.

Donna Born's "The Image of the Woman Journalist in American Popular Fiction, 1890 to the Present," a Paper Presented to the Committee of the Association for Education in Journalism, Annual Convention, Michigan State University, East Lansing, August, 1981, pp. 1-45. Also, "The Woman Journalist of the 1920s and 1930s in Fiction and in Autobiography," presented to the Qualitative Studies Division, Association for Education in Journalism Annual Convention, Ohio, July 1982, pp. 1-24. Born was an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism at Central Michigan University.

Jean Marie Lutes' "Front-Page Girls: Women Journalists in American Culture and Fiction, 1880-1930," Cornell University Press, 2007. This is the first study of the newspaperwoman in American literary culture at the turn of the 20th century. It examines the relationship of real-life reporters such as Nellie Bly and Ida B. Wells with fictional characters such as Henrietta Stackpole, the lady correspondent in Henry James' "Portrait of a Lady." It chronicles the exploits of a a neglected group of American women writers and uncovers an alternative reporter-novelist tradition that runs counter to the more familiar story of gritty realism generated in male-dominated newsrooms. It also explores how women's journalism shaped the path from news to novels for women writers.
Also, Lutes' Sob Sisterhood Revisited," (American Literary History - Volume 15, Number 3, Fall, 2003, pp. 504-532, Oxford University Press), and "Into the Madhouse with Nellie Bly: Girl Stunt Reporting in Late Nineteenth Century America" (American Quarterly, Volume 54, Number 2, June 2002, pp. 217-253).

Bonnie Sue Brennen's Peasantry of the Press: A History of American Newsworkers from Novels, 1919-1938," Thesis-Dissertation, 1993. University of Iowa Library.

H.H. McClure's "Inside Views of Fiction: III -- The Newspaper Novel," Bookman, Volume XXXI, March-August 1910, pp. 60-61.

Jay Black's Ethics of the Fictional Journalist: How Novelists Portray Decision-making in the News Business," 1994. Emerson College Library.

John Luther Windrow's "Getting a Bad Press: the Image of the Journalists in Fiction Written by Journalists in the 1980's." Thesis-dissertation, 1996. OCLC: 63290954. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis Library.

Heidi M. Langner-Burns' "The Image of Journalists in American Film and Fiction from 1975 to 1987: An Application of Leo Lowenthal's Model," School of Journalism, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 1989.

Carri Gregorski, Denny Wilkins, John Hanchette, Paul J. Spaeth, James Snyder, James Webb's "Ethical Journalism: Traditional Newsgathering, Journalism in Film and an Examination of 'All The President's Men.'" St. Bonaventure University, 2003. Thesis-Dissertation-Book.

Fiction or Truth by Steve Hallock, The Quill (Chicago, Ill.) v. 85, pp. 31-34, May, 1997. Just as cops and lawyers and coaches and politicians complain about how they are treated in newspaper stories, journalists lament their treatment at the hands of fiction authors. An inspection of six novels of newspapers or newspaper characters yielded some nuggets of reality, but these nuggets were hidden among the negative stereotypes, cliches and myths. The most troubling aspect of these books is the attitude toward journalism conveyed by the authors. If fiction mirrors society, there is little doubt the public distrusts the news media or that reporters are viewed as an arrogant pack feeding on society's ills.

Hugh Lessig's News Noir Web site is an entertaining look at the journalist in fiction. As Lessig puts it: "Hardboiled tales and newspapers. They've gone together from the beginning. The River City Blade is a fictional paper, devoted to the spirit of the hardboiled newspaperman. Its sister paper is called The Frisco Foil, and I've based a few stories there -- when I feel like writing about the West Coast. Whether it's the Foil or the Blade, whether it was Kennedy of the Free Press or Kolchak of Night Stalker fame, reporters always stick their notebooks where they don't belong."

SCOOP! JOURNALISTS IN FICTION Web site. "Journalists appear in fiction in many guises and play many roles. Sometimes they provide central characters, often they intrude on the action, their attentions as unwelcome as they often are in real life. Scoop! gathers together these appearances under a variety of themes, some amusing, some trivial, some giving an insight into how the Press works and how it is seen to impact on our society."

PUBLIC RELATIONS

Click Here for Alphabetized List of Authors on Public Relations Practitioners

Karen S. Miller's Public Relations in Film and Fiction, 1930 to 1995, Journal of Public Relations Research 11 (1):3-28, 1999. Miller is an associate professor of advertising and public relations in the College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.

Emily Kinsky, Texas Tech University, "The Portrayal of Public Relations Practitioners in The West Wing," a paper presented at the 2006 AEJMC Convention in San Francisco. An investigation of the portrayal of public relations practitioners was performed using content analysis of the 22 episodes in the debut season of The West Wing. The practitioners were coded based on demonstrated traits and work performed or discussed. Significant differences were found between male and female practitioners being included or disciplined, appearing as major characters, dealing with government officials and the media, discussing speech writing, and appearing silly.

Kaye D. Trammell, University of Georgia and Lisa K. Lundy, Louisiana State University, "Perception of Public Relations: An Experiment Testing the Impact of Entertainment Portrayals of the Profession on Students and Practitioners," a paper presented at the 2006 AEJMC Convention in San Francisco. Researchers investigated the impact of entertainment portrayals of the public relations profession. Findings indicate that while all groups believe the portrayal of the profession in the stimulus was inaccurate, participants allowed the entertainment program to cloud their perception of public relations. Respondents experienced third-person effects but the phenomenon dissipated as one's connection to the profession decreased.

Youjin Choi, University of Florida, "Effects of Entertainment Television Program Viewing on Student's Perceptions of Public Relations Functions," a paper presented at the 2006 AEJMC Convention in San Francisco. This study conducted a survey with students in an introductory public relations course to examine the effects of television viewing of entertainment programs with public relations characters on the perceptions about public relations functions. A factor analysis classified students;' perceptions into five categories: two-way communications, political communication, spokesperson , writing, and informal media relations.

ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY

Click Here for Alphabetized List of Authors on Journalists in Art and Photography

Images of the Combat Journalist – Reality & Fantasy, a power point presentation by Dr. David Natharius, Adjunct Professor, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Arizona State University. Presented to the Western States Communication Association Convention, Albuquerque, NM, Feb. 15, 2004, and to the National Communication Association (NCA) Convention, Chicago, IL, Nov. 12, 2004.

Nora Paul, director, Institute for New Media Studies, University of Minnesota, has a newspaper art collection of postcards and memorabilia, an extraordinary collection.

COMIC BOOKS

Click Here for Alphabetized List of Authors on Journalists in Comic Books

Everything I Need To Know About Journalism I Learned From Superman
(And Other Comic Books) by Tom Henderson, managing editor of the Polk County Itemizer-Observer in Dallas, Oregon, and “Mild Mannered Reporter” columnist for the paper. He is also President of the Society of Professional Journalists Greater Oregon Professional Chapter.

"It's a bird...it's a plane...it's a journalist?" A Framing Analysis of the Representation of Journalists and the Press in Comic Book Films. A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University in Minnesota by Katherine Ann (Beck) Foss in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Art. October 2004.

EXTRA! The Comic Book Journalist Survives the Censors of 1955 by Tom Brislin, Journalism History v. 21, pp. 123-130. Autumn, 1995. EXTRA! is a 1955 comic book that chose journalists as its protagonists. Unlike other comics that used the journalist to mask a secret superhero identity, such as Superman or Spider-man, EXTRA! portrayed the journal sits themselves, albeit in glorified form, as the heroes. EXTRA! built an impressive cast with an image of journalists that fit nearly into professional and gender stereotypes of the era. The male journalists were young, rugged and handsome, unencumbered by family, social, or community obligations. They were more likely to use their fists or a gun than a pen or camera. Women were easily divisible into "hard" and "soft" character types: Women journalists were "hard," equal in mettle to the males in the profession. The remainder of the sex was "soft," either in or making trouble. Women always played a part in getting the story; often they were the reward for male journalists afterward.

MUSIC

Click Here for Alphabetized List of Authors on Journalists in Music

Tabloid Suite: Four Pictures of a Modern Newspaper composed by Ferde Grofe in 1932 consists of Picture No. 1: Run of the News (3:31). Picture No. 2 – Sob Sister (5:23). Picture No. 3 – Comic Strip (3:11). Picture No. 4 – Going to Press (7:38). New CD just released.

"We Both Reached for the Gun" from the musical, Chicago (1976 on the Broadway stage, 2003 in the movies) with lyrics by Fred Ebb, Fred (Lyrics). John Kander (Music). Shows the manipulation of the media by an attorney in dynamic musical form. Tabloid Columnist Mary Sunshine. Attorney Billy & Reporters: "Oh Yes, Oh Yes, Oh Yes They Both, Oh Yes, They Both Oh Yes, They Both Reached For the Gun, The Gun, The Gun, The Gun Oh Yes, They Both Reached For The Gun, For the Gun." Mary Sunshine: "You poor dear! I can't believe what you've been through! A convent girl! A runaway marriage! Oh, it's too, too terrible. Now tell us, Roxie…." Reporters: "Why'd You Shoot Him?"… What's your Statement?…" Mary Sunshine dances with Billy: "Understandable. Understandable." With Billy: "Yes, It’s Perfectly Understandable." Mary Sunshine bounces in mid-air pulled by strings. Billy and Mary: "Comprehensible. Comprehensible." Mary Sunshine picks up Roxie and puts her back in Billy's lap. "Not a Bit Reprehensible. It's So Defensible." Reporters: "Oh Yes, Oh Yes, Oh Yes, They Both, Oh Yes, They Both Reached For…" Billy: "Let me hear it." Reporters: "The Gun, The Gun, The Gun, The Gun, Oh Yes, They Both Reached For The Gun, For The Gun." Billy: "Now you got it!" Mary Sunshine rips out an article on an Underwood and hands it to a Copy Boy. The sequence ends with a series of Chicago newspapers rolling off the presses with the headlines: "They Both Reached for the Gun."

"Whatchulooinat" by Whitney Houston in 2003 album, Just Whitney. Concerns Tabloid Editor of the National Enquirer. Letter to the editor disguised as an R-and-B song: "Messin' with my reputation, ain't even got no education. God is the reason my soul is free, and I don't need you looking at me."

"Dirt" from the 2002 Broadway musical, Sweet Smell of Success, sung by Gossip Columnist J.J. Hunsecker (John Lithgow). Entire musical involves newspaper and gossip columnists. Hunsecker is based on Gossip Columnist Walter Winchell in this musical adaptation of the 1965 movie.
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"The Sky is Falling" from the TV children's program, Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child: Henny Penny, a TV children's program created in 1999, with music and lyrics by Spencer Preffer and Steve Punkett. Reporter Henny Penny sings "The Sky is Falling" (performed by Patti Welch): "I've got the biggest story ever heard, they will hang on every word, I'm going to be a famous bird. Yes, I've got the biggest scoop I've ever had. The story's bound to be my launching pad. The sky is falling, you'd better watch your head, the sky is falling, the headline will be read, and everybody will know before it falls, that I'm the best reporter of them all. I'm sure the Pulitzer is mine, I will sign the dotted line on a book deal so divine. Yes Hollywood will demand the movie's rights and I'll be on the stage on Oscar Night. The sky is falling, You'd better watch your head, the sky is falling, the headline will be read. And everybody will know before it falls, that I'm the best reporter of them all.The sky is falling, you'd better watch your head, the sky is falling, the headline will be read. Woodward and Bernstein won't even get a call, cause I'm the top reporter, the number one reporter, yes, I'm the best reporter of them all.

"Dirty Laundry" sung by Don Henley in 1982: Journalist's cry, ""Come and whisper in my ear….We love dirty laundry."" Refrain shouts: ""Kick 'em when they're up. Kick 'em when they're down. Kick 'em all around."

"Extra, Extra" from the 1942 film, The Blazing Trail, Editor Smiley Burnett of the Bradytown Bugle hawking his papers and singing: "Extra. Extra here. Buy a paper. Extra. Extra here. You can read all about it. All the latest gossip on the beat. Tells you what you want to know and who’s been doing what. Buy it for two cents a sheet. Extra, extra, here you can read all about it. The bulldog edition’s on the street. Plumb full of scandals, swindles and fights. Buy it for two cents a sheet."

"Jimmy Olsen's Blues," from the 1991 Spin Doctors album, "Pocket Full of Kryptonite."
Cub Reporter-Photographer Olsen is in love with Reporter Lois Lane and laments he can't compete with Superman. "Well, I don't think I can handle this A cloudy day in Metropolis I think I'll talk to my analyst I got it so bad for this little journalist. It drives me up the wall and through the roof Lois and Clark in a telephone booth. I think I'm going out of my brain I got it so bad for little miss Lois Lane. Lois Lane please put me in your plan Yeah, Lois Lane you don't need no Super Man. Come on downtown and stay with me tonight, I got a pocket full of kryptonite.He's Leaping buildings in a single bound I'm reading Shakespeare at my place downtown. Come on downtown and make love to me, I'm Jimmy Olsen not a titan, you see. He's faster than a bullet, stronger than a train. He's Leaping buildings in a single bound I'm reading Shakespeare at my place downtown. Come on downtown and make love to me, I'm Jimmy Olsen not a titan, you see. He's faster than a bullet, stronger than a train…"

Meet John Doe: The Musical, lyrics by Eddie Sugarman and music by Andrew Gerle, premiere in Washington D.C. Ford Theatre, 3-27-2007. Reporter Ann Mitchell loses her job in the middle of the Depression so she prints a phony letter from a “John Doe” who, protesting the state of society, promises to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge on Christmas Eve. Circulation goes through the roof and she convinces her editor to hire an out-of-work ballplayer to stand in for John Doe. The ambitious newspaper reporter ghost writes the “John Doe” column. With his words and his down-home charm, John Doe quickly becomes a national sensation. When the paper’s powerful owner reveals true plans for John Doe, both Ann and John must confront what they’ve created and decide what they truly believe in.

"I'm Your Man" from the musical, "Meet John Doe." Lyrics by Eddie Sugarman and Music by Andrew Gerle. Reporter Ann Mitchell sings this song to Editor Richard Connell trying to get her job back on the paper: “You want fireworks? I’ll give ya the Fourth of July! Lots of luck finding somebody better than I. Simply smashing. Really, Chief, you’re quite astute. Your plane’s crashing -- and you ditch your parachute.
You need someone with talent and passion and brains. You need someone with newspaper ink in their veins. No coffee cup has lipstick stains, but Brother, I’m your man.
I’ll write just what you say, anyway that you want. And when it comes to arguing I’m a savant!
Use my column, Any topic, take your pick. I can slalom Back and forth on rhetoric! You need someone who crosses her legs and her T’s. I’m so quick that I’ve got my own personal breeze.
I’ve got high heels and two of these, but Brother I’m your man.
I don’t need this position! So go on and throw out a gem. You have stiff competition. Dick! You can go to hell. I’ll go and work for them! Anything you need done, I’m the one for the job.
You want corny? I’ll type it right off of the cob. I need money, You need me to make a stir. Rent my fingers, I’ll throw in a Pulitzer!
Front Page headlines will keep Mom and me off the street. Come tomorrow some editor’s in for a treat. Just say the word, and that’s my beat! Brother, I’m your man.
Watch out, New York. Here comes -- Ann!.