The media professional in the cinema of recent years

Abstract

Between 1930 and 1999, 77 films in which the journalist plays a central role were released in Spain. In the same period, the number of these titles, if we include those in which a media professional just appears, reaches to 703. Some authors speak of a genre or subgenre called cinema of journalists (or journalists’ cinema). Since 1975, we find several authors who analyzed the image of the reporter in films (Maxwell Taylor, Alex Barris, Juan Carlos Laviana, Richard Ness, Larry Langman, Loren Ghiglione or Joe Saltzman). These authors usually focus on flagship titles from the origins of cinema until the late 90's. In our study, we discuss the representation of journalists in some films of the last decade. We use content analysis and we combine the models of Professional Theory, the classification drawn by the journalist Juan Carlos Laviana and the one of Professor Joe Saltzman. The main objective is to determine if there are any dominant images, their characteristics, the question of other powers that appear alongside MCM and how the journalist relates with them. There are three main images in the five films analyzed: the pleasant journalist, the committed one and the manager. The executive, the economic, the judiciary and the security and police forces are also represented. In some cases the positive collaboration between authorities is shown and in other ones the displayed relationship in the film is negative.