Book contents
12 - In closing
from Part III - Villains
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2013
Summary
We have seen journalists portrayed in cinema as heroes and villains; as complex, richly drawn characters; and as crude stereotypes. We have seen lurid anti-tabloid revenge fantasies where journalists are exterminated like cockroaches; and poignant reconstructions of real-life tragedies in which the journalist is the victim, or the target. There are still stereotypes and caricatures of journalism on the screen, many of them crass and stupid. But there has been amongst film-makers a clear recognition of the importance and difficulty of the job journalists do in a modern democracy, particularly at a time of conflict. There were many heroic representations of journalism in the cinema over the period 1997–2008 – many more, indeed, than there were villains. Journalists, male and female, are represented in the cinema of this period as courageous investigators and witnesses, and as determined protectors of their sources and their freedoms.
There are some journalistic bad guys (and bad girls) still around in the movies, to be sure, as there are fakers, fraudsters, hacks and reptiles in real life, but for now at least, they are eclipsed by the more positive representations favoured by such directors as George Clooney and Michael Winterbottom. Public opinion may be ambivalent about journalists as a professional category, and trust continues to be an issue, but the success of films such as Good Night, and Good Luck demonstrates that we want our journalists to be heroic, and value their efforts to be so.
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- Information
- Journalists in FilmHeroes and Villains, pp. 199 - 200Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2009