Journalism in Hollywood
There have been many movies and shows produced that create an image of who a journalist is and what it is they do. In His Girl Friday, The Paper, and The Newsroom we see the ways Hollywood has depicted journalism as scheming manipulators, competitors in a race, and heroes breaking the rhetoric to share the truth by looking at the main characters in each of the movies and shows, and why they are pursuing a story.
In The Paper we see how competition is the main aspect of journalism that drives the individual. Henry competes not only with other newspapers but also with people in his own office to get his story on the front page first. While we see that his story is the nobler of those that are circulating, from the beginning of the movie we see that his goal is only to be the best paper, to share this story before the paper he stole his source from publishes theirs tomorrow. The fact that it is this that drives him through the movie, beat the other papers, beat my colleagues, creates this image that while a journalist can be strongly working towards uncovering the truth, his motives may not be to for the truth but that he is in a race to be the day’s story.
In The Newsroom, we get a different take on who journalists are. We see in the pilot episode that journalism should not be concerned about ratings, corporations, or what the audience feels but instead focus on finding/uncovering the truth and reveal it to the world. This is seen very prominently when two of the character end up face to face. One has built a very popular platform by not offending anyone, meaning he is saying almost nothing true or false when he reports because to do so would create controversy. And our strong female character who could care less for what other people think, she is now working in this corporation news station to reconstruct the ship. She is pulling down all the old riggings of “no offense” and pulling up new ones focused on telling the truth, finding it if required, and sharing it with the world. She is breaking the cycle people of choosing what viewpoint is right for them, to having to confront that what you may believe may not be right.
And lastly, there is His Girl Friday, this movie is a mixing pot for the two viewpoints in The Paper and The Newsroom. In this movie, they show that journalism can be a quest for truth, but also a field of manipulation and competition. The protagonist Hildy is trying to discover the truth in this story she stumbles upon while writing a quick interview before she leaves for her wedding the following day. While she starts out like they are in The Paper, living off of competition and uncovering corruption, by the end of the movie she has become more like The Newsroom trying to bring the truth to the world no matter the costs.
The viewpoint drawn of journalist and journalism shows that you can fall into one of these categories: search and show the truth to the world no matter the cost, impede people’s desire to know and understand what is happening around them by just chasing for your next story or desire to not upset anyone, and finally, search for the truth while having no motivation to do it for the public and only out to find it for self-interest and personal gain.
