Journalists in film heroes and villains - McNair, Brian (Edinburgh University Press, 2010)
Includes bibliographical references (pages 253-256) and index
Introductions and overviews. Introduction ; A good tradition of love and hate ; Heroes and villains : an overview of journalism on film ; Journalism in film : 1997-2008 -- Heroes. Watchdogs ; Witnesses ; Heroines ; Artists -- Villains. Rogues, reptiles and repentant sinners ; Fabricators, fakers, fraudsters ; King-makers ; In closing -- Appendix : films about journalism, 1997-2008
We both love and hate our journalists. They are perceived as sexy and glamorous on the one hand, despicable and sleazy on the other. Opinion polls regularly indicate that we experience a kind of cultural schizophrenia in our relationship to journalists and the news media: sometimes they are viewed as heroes, at other times villains. From Watergate to the fabrication scandals of the 2000s, journalists have risen and fallen in public esteem. In this book, leading journalism studies scholar Brian McNair explores how journalists have been represented through the prism of one of our key cultural for