MAGAZINE

FictionMAY 2018
4 JOURNALISTS
OF POPULAR
CULTURE
PROFILES
WHAT MEDIA
HAS DONE TO
THE IMAGE OF
JOURNALISTS
TOP 5 STEREOTYPES
OF JOURNALISTS
FICTION May 2018 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS
4
THE MANY VERSIONS OF THE MAN
FORMERLY KNOWN AS SUPERMAN
6
Fictional
Photojournalists
10
BARNES’ HOUSE OF CARDS
12
Other Popular Culture
Journalists
14
THE GILMORE GIRL OF JOURNALISM
18
Photo Credits
19
Works cited
2 FICTION May 2018

JOURNALISM & POPULAR CULTURE
Journalism shapes our views and popular
culture shapes our views of journalism.
People are very impressionable, especially
when it comes to the stories in the
world of fiction. Whether we like it or
not, fiction effects our perceptions of
many professions. Journalists are tasked
with holding the government and other
institutions accountable, but some media
interpret them as truth-twisting scandal
writers.
“Journalists have been ubiquitus
characters in popular culture, and those characters are likely to shape people’s impressions of the news
media as least as much if not more than the actual press does” (Heroes & Scoundrels, 1). Influence
falls on both sides of the spectrum in more than one way: negative and positive as well as reality versus
fiction. Negative representations result in negative notions, as where “many journalists have said that the
movies actually helped inspire them to enter the profession” (Heroes & Scoundrels, 3).
In popular culture, we are more prone to influence by legends or myths. Journalism is not immune to
being mythologized. The legendary
veteran journalist, heavy on the
saracasm as well as the scotch, is
just one of the myths of what being a
reporter is like.
The media shines a very particular light
on journalists and their myths. There
is “the heroic image of the journalist
defending the truth against the many
dragons of darkness in the modern
world (Heroes & Scoundrels, 5).
However, there is the contrasting view
that puts the reporter in the position of
the dragon. This journalist’s personality
consists of corruption and vulgarity.
It is not only journalists themselves that are surrounded by legend. Newsrooms are often shown as
a rough scene with tension and challenges. It is a fast paced environment that also runs itself like a
detective agency. The newsroom is also represented as this great, shining goal in the eyes of a cub
reporter. However, “other themes showed idealistic journalists gradually being worn down by the hideous
condtions of the newsroom” (Heroes & Scoundrels, 7). It can also be painted as a casm of corruption
and back door deals. From the slummed down to the glamorized representations, journalists both love
and hate media depictions of themselves.
FICTION May 2018 3

Clark
In the case of Clark Kent, he gets away with
lazy journalism. What other journalist, or any
professional for that matter, can up and leave their
job at a moment’s notice? Although his work has
been considered in line with the principles that
the press upholds, his “deception is allowable
only in exceptional cases after there has been
a ‘meaningful, collaborative, and deliborative
decision making process’, for which Kent typically
has no time or inclination” (Heroes & Scoundrels,
4 FICTION May 2018
It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s superman!
He’s Clark Kent, the journalist who has dozens of different popular
culture depictions.
The classic hero journalist, but he’s the hero nobody realizes is a
hero. But there is something wrong with this image...
Clark Kent, golden boy or same as the rest?
There is a stereotypical view of every profession, and popular
culture bolsters the stereotype of journalists. The myth is created,
and a myth always has a hero and a villain. Journalists have been
depicted as both.
There is a hero complex when it comes to journalists. Heroes are
often written as the perfect person, always doing the right thing for
the right reason. They are confident, ethical, and they can always
hold their own. Hero journalists are completely in line with the typical hero type.
In the Golden Age Superman comics, which were set in 1938, being a journalist equals being a hero.
Even without the cape, Clark was still held in high esteem.
The main difference between typical heroes and journalist heroes is that in journalism, faults and sins are
allowed if they are done for the greater good. They can “violate any ethical code as long as they expose
corruption” (Heroes & Scoundrels, 16). There is some validity to fictional illustrations. Fables, myths, etc.,
give us examples of the morals we live by. They are fictional, but that does not mean that they should be
completely ignored or entirely taken to heart.

Kent
48). As long as the truth is exposed, it does not matter who gets hurt or what it takes to get there. Also,
when a closer look is taken, did Clark really uphold journalistic integrity? How many stories did he write
that involved Superman (himself) or events surrounding Superman? Is that a conflict of interest? At a
glance, it can appear very self-serving.
In many portrayals of Clark Kent and Lois Lane, there is always something big and exciting going on.
This is one myth that is prevalent in popular culture. “There’s always a thrilling new story around the
bend” (Plummer). There is a common misconception stemming from fiction that journalism is all about
the thrilling, exciting crime cases or uncovering something big, but at the same time it give journalists
something to aspire to.
FICTION May 2018 5

Fictional
Jimmy Olson
First he was shown in the comics as the
man who always captured Superman in
his full glory.
In the past few years, he has taken on a
new muse through Superman’s cousin
Supergirl.
Later in the Supergirl series Jimmy
Olson takes a stereotypical fictional
photojournalist turn to be the hero.
Chris Hunter
Clark Gable plays a newsreel
photographer in Too Hot to
Handle (1938).
Jeff Jefferies
James Stewart in the role of a
photojournalist, a role that is “consistent
not only with the idea of photojournalism
as being unethical, but also with broader
fears about cameras being used to spy
on others” (Heroes & Scoundrels, 104).
6 FICTION May 2018

Photojournalists
“they sometimes are portrayed as
doing exactly what journalists
say they should do: they
promote accuracy and fairness,
document wrongdoing and
evil, and push citizens toward
empathy and justice. Other times
they represent the worst fears
about visual media: an oppressive
force that lends itself to
fabrication, trivialization, and
dehumanization” (Heroes & Scoundrels, 102).
Peter Parker
Like Superman, Peter Parker moonlights as a hero. There are the same conflict of interest
concerns with Spiderman as there were with Clark Kent. He is the subject of his on photos. In
the Tobey Maguire Spiderman film, he poses for his own photos. This feeds into the popular
culture depiction that photojournalists set up and doctor their images.
FICTION May 2018 7

8 FICTION May 2018
LEarn more about
journalism and
popular culture in
these reads!

Photojournalists
sign up today!
FICTION May 2018 9

Zoe Barnes starts off her career as a digital journalist, and she embodies the theme of old school
journalism versus the new ways.
The show begain airing near the start of the digital revolution, when printed newspapers where becoming
few and far between. House of Cards explores “the difference between print and digital journalism in a
manner never done before on television” (Print versus Digital, 129). Barnes brings in a more publicized
view of journalists tendencies towards “free-reign” journalism in the blogosphere.
We see the theme of editor versus reporter in Barnes’ relationship with her editor, Lucas Goodwin.
Goodwin is a traditional print journalist, and because of Barnes’ digital background, they often butt
heads.
“Zoe argues with Lucas for a tmz-like politics
blog written in THE FIRST PERSON, while lucas
dismisses the idea. Zoe informs him that this
dismissal is the reason print journalism is
dying, and lucas tells her,
’then it will die with dignity,’
implying that digital journalism does
not have dignity” (Print Versus Digital, 130).
Despite backlash from her editor as well as her editorin
chief, Barnes starts to gain traction in her career
with the help of main character Frank Underwood. On
live television, Barnes argues the importance of the
emerging age of journalism on the internet. Barnes also
shows the danger of new journalism with the ability to publish straight
to the web without being first reviewed by an editor.
Zoe
10 FICTION May 2018
Although the editors lack popular
appeal with the show’s audience,
their importance to the industry is
stressed. Barnes follows Underwood’s
instructions to publish Tweets that are
actually, as we like to call it today, fake
news.
This calls into question the journalistic
ethics of Barnes, or the lack thereof.
She is at the beck and call of
Underwood. She writes what she
feels, which is all well and good for
bloggers, but when you are a news
reporter remaining unbiased is of

paramount importance. Underwood is manipulating her, however, Barnes is knowingly reporting false
information. Despite being told by another journalist, Janine Skorsky, “that Underwood is using her, and
she needs to rely on others, such as editors and reporters, to vet the information she is disseminating to
readers” (Print Versus Digital, 132), Barnes continues with her unethical behavior.
Barnes
Unfortunately, Barnes
demonstrates the
negative stereotype
of women having sex
with their sources
to get their stories.
Barnes is letting
herself be used by
Underwood for his own means to further her
career. This behavior is completely against the
Society of Professional Journalist’s code.
Also traditional to women depicted in journalism is her not getting taken seriously.
Tom Hammerschmidt, editor-in chief, says, “Know this, Zoe Barnes, Twitter, Enriched media,
they’re fads. They’re not what this paper is built on. I won’t be distracted by what’s
fashionable”
If only this fictional editor-in-chief had a crystal ball to look into the futute (for us, present day) and see
how seriously the President of the United States takes Twitter. House of Cards foreshadows the age of
Trump and digital journalism through the character of Zoe Barnes. Will journalists like Barnes and the
representation of them in fiction ultimately be the downfall of journalism?
FICTION May 2018 11

other popular cul
Rita skeeter
The press (The Daily Prophet) has always been depicted
as a main source of hurt in the Harry Potter series. Gossip
columnists are often placed strictly in the villain category. They
get down and dirty to find the grit of the story. “Skeeter still
implies that journalists ‘seek scandals and the sensational’,
‘invade people’s privacy’, ‘twist the facts’, amd ‘are not
concerned about the public interest’” (Heroes & Scoundrels,
85). Gossip columnists, real and fictional, are generally
considered the scorn of the industry.
Gideon Wallace
Tabloid reporter played by Brandon Hines
represents the popular media outline of
a reporter willing to go to any lengths to
uncover the big scoop. In this instance, his
persistence leads to his murder.
Lester Verde (Dr. Bong)
Lester Verde, another tabloid journalist,
takes the preverbial stage as Dr. Bong.
The multi-version approach to a journalist
having many roles is shown here as Verde
“went from sleazy reporter and rock music
critic to genetic engineering mastermind
- and eventual psychiatrist to Deadpool”
(Laprade).
12 FICTION May 2018

ture journalists
Logan Huntzberger
Heir to the Huntzberger legacy, Logan is the
son of a promient newspaper mogul. We
see him as a staff writer at the Yale Daily
News. We see a couple see some cliched
reporter versus editor confrontations,
a staple in many popular culture
interpretations of the world of journalism.
Although we do not see Logan writing many
articles, he challenges main character Rory
to step out of her journalistic comfort zone:
RORY: Look, thanks for the offer, but I’m here as a journalist. An observer. Journalists
do not participate.
LOGAN: Since when?
RORY: Since forever.
LOGAN: George Plimpton never participated.
RORY: What?
LOGAN: His best stuff put him in the think of it. Fighting Sugar Ray Robinson,
quarterbacking for the Lions, skating for the Bruins.
RORY: So he participated.
LOGAN: Bill Buford lived with soccer hooligans in amongst the thugs. Ernie Pyle was so
deep in the action in World War II, he was killed by a Japanese sniper, not that you gotta
go that far.
RORY: Buford, Pyle. I know.
LOGAN: Richard Hottelet was four months in a Nazi prison working for the U.P. Hunter
Thompson lived with the Hell’s Angels. Got in the muck, didn’t just orbit around it, and
it drove his writing. He put you in those biker’s parties. He put you in those biker’s heads.
RORY: All right, all right, so, those guys participated. I got it, but I –
EMCEE: Jumpers to their places, please!
LOGAN: You’re scared.
RORY: Well, yeah!
LOGAN: And that stops the greats?
RORY: It’s stopping this great!
LOGAN: Come on, you look like you need a little adventure.
(Gilmore Girls, S5E7)
FICTION May 2018 13

ory
Why is Gilmore Girls a Valid Source?
As far as popular culture is concerned, Gilmore Girls is the leader.
“Cultural ephemera, icons, and Americana are sprinkled liberally
throughout Amy Sherman-Palladino’s writing” (Screwball Television,
13). From mentions of authors to actors to books to current events to
political leaders and debates, in every episode of every season, there
are a number of popular culture references.
Gilmore Girls is full of horizontal and vertical intertextuality. At times,
the characters personify other characters from different stories. Some
people just think it is a chick-flick type of show.
However, it “demands a certain degree of
cultural literacy” (Gilmore Girls, 80).
The Journey
From the time she was fifteen all the way to her final year of college and then again for another year
of her life in her thirties, Gilmore Girls has represented Rory Gilmore in many character generalizations
made about journalists.
Typically, the journey of a journalist starts
with them as a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed
cub journalist straight out of college, with big
hopes and ever bigger journalistic dreams.
However, Gilmore’s journalistic journey starts
when she was even more bright-eyed, bushytailed,
and baby-faced.
The first mention of Gilmore’s goals as a
journalist in the second episode of season
one. She is starting a new school and
meeting with the headmaster for the first time.
He asks her what her aspirations are. Even
14 FICTION May 2018

at fifteen years old, Rory knows what she wants to do. “I
want to go the Harvard, and study journalism and political
science” (Gilmore Girls, S1E2). Here, Rory is a slight vision of
a cub journalist with big aspirations.
Headmaster Charleston questions the seriousness of her
aspirations. Along with that, he is thinking Rory is in it for
the fame at first. He is then surprised. This is an example
of a dominant male questioning the female. Such a theme
is recurring throughout journalism in popular culture.
Charleston then talks about how this higher education
will help her achieve her goals, giving way to the modern
journalism idea that having an education equates to being a
better journalist. This ideal conflicts with the other ideal that
being a good journalist mean getting experience and getting
your hands dirty.
As discussed earlier, reporters and editors often come to
verbal blows. We see the first editor-reporter conflict in a
season with Rory and fellow classmate Paris Geller. Paris
stakes her claim on the newspaper.
“The school is my domain. And the franklin is my domain. Don’t you ever forget that”
(Gilmore Girls, S1E2).
Paris reaffirms this sentiment later in episode twenty-one.
Rory goes on the next year to join The Franklin, the high school’s newspaper. It is not until college that a
large portion the representation of journalism comes through. Rory ended up going to Yale, which has a
better journalism school. Through Rory continuing her education in journalism, she challenges the oldschool
approach to journalism. This is seen as a persistant theme in seasons five through seven.
Because of Yale, she meets previously profiled heir of a newspaper Logan Huntzberger. This publishing
heir opens Rory up to a whole
new world and bring her out of
her shell. Because of Logan,
she becomes a better journalist
and publishs one of her first big
stories about the Life and Death
Gilmore
FICTION May 2018 15

Brigade. With Logan, there was more
than just a new world opened up to
her but new opportunites as well. With
Logan being the son of newspaper
mogul Mitchum Huntzberger, she could
have her pick of newspapers to work
at. Traditionally in pop culture, women
are painted as taking the easy way out
to get to their career goals. However,
Rory rarely takes advantage of this
point. Rory learns in these situations
that having an Ivy League education is
not always going to get you favorable
circumstances.
“Despite her initial reticence, Rory acccepts an internship at a small
newspaper owned by mitchum huntzberger, reinforcing the idea that
becoming a journalist has nothing to do with what is taught at the
’best universities in the most powerful countries in the world’.
instead, it is all about who you know”
(Screwball Television, 215).
With the Huntzbergers, Rory deviates from the sterotypical woman journalist route of love before
school and a career . She cancels plans a number of times with her first boyfriend Dean Forester in
order to study and once to pursue a major story. More stereotypical woman journalist behaviors are
represented in her relationship with Dean. Stress is put on this relationship when he does not really
show an interesst in Rory’s news stories.
A bigger deviation from the “womanly norm”, she turns down Logan’s proposal. Her grandparents and
others in her life do not understand this. Later in the reboot, Gilmore Girl A Year in the Life, we see this
various times in a more exaggerated way in her relationship with Paul.
Even in modern times, depictions of female journalists seem to be stuck in the fifties. Women are
supposed to go to school, get married, and have kids. Their career is always supposed to be
secondary to their family. There has always been an uphill struggle from the beginning of the history of
women in journalism.
16 FICTION May 2018
Despite the focus the show places on her
relationship, they also show her being a
thorough journalist. In a conversation with
her editor Doyle at the Yale Daily News, he
tells her about how Mitchum Huntzberger
had just barged in saying, “I’d like to
hand my business over to my son, Doyle.
So it’d be nice if he knew something
about it” (Gilmore Girls, S5E12). Doyle
then expresses that he in now Logan’s

journalistic godfather. When Rory
questions if Logan can actually
write, Doyle tells her that he’s
actually a great writer, he just
doesn’t focus as much on the
paper as he does on partying.
Doyle is waiting on a piece from
Logan and Rory offer to help.
Rory then meets Logan at the
Pub so she can share the notes
on the story with him. He arrives
to see three stacks of colorcoded
folders, each at least a
few inches thick. She notes, “I’ve
divided them up into sections, interviews, research, statistics” (Gilmore Girls, S5E12). Her attention to
detail as a journalist shines through in this scene.
Rory later become editor of the Yale Daily News. Here, the tables turn and she has her own conflict with
reporters as their editor. One characteristic that makes its way through poular culture portrayals is when
a woman journalist lets her feelings works their way into her job. After a spat with Logan, she poaches a
story from him claiming that she was not sure
he was going to get it done. Logan expresses
frustration over this situation.
“It wasn’t going to earn me my pulitzer
but i already put a lot of work into it”
(Gilmore Girls, S6E18).
“Gilmore Girls presents a primarily positive
view of journalism, however filled it may be
with stereotypes about or simplifications of the
profession” (Screwball Television, xxvii). Despite
the original series giving a positive depiction
of journalists, the same cannot be said for the
recent four-part series reunion on Netlfix. Rory
ends the original series as an online reporter
following the Obama campaign.
When we see Rory again, she is in her thirties
and after her one-hit-wonder, talk-of-the-town
piece, she’s grasping at straws and praticing
poor journalism as she tries to figure out her
next step. Rory goes to an interview without
having any story ideas then out drinking with
and having a one-night-stand with a source
whose name she doesn’t know then goes to an
interview expecting a hand out. Far has the Ivy
League journalist star has fallen.
FICTION May 2018 17

Photo Credits
Cover
Zoe - Daily Mail
Gideon - DVDBash.com
Rory - Flickr
Clark - Wiki Fandom
Table of Contents
Superman - Pinterest
Barnes - Hollywood Reporter
Rory - ED2010.com
Page 3
Newspapers - Flickr
All the President’s Men - Flickr
Page 4
Superman Logo - Google Images
Clark Kent comic - Flickr
Clark Kent - YouTube
Page 5
Superman the movie - Google Images
Page 6
Jimmy Olson - HeyUGuys
Clark Gable - Getty Images
Jeff Jefferies - netflista.com.br
Page 7
Peter Parker - Tor.com
Page 8
Heroes & Scoundrels - University of Illinois Press
Heroes & Villains - Amazon.com
Page 9
Eddie Adams Workshop - dgriffenstudio
Page 10
Zoe - Indie Wire
House of Cards Logo - Netflix
Page 11
Zoe - GIFER
Page 12
Rita Skeeter - Wiki Fandom
Gideon Wallace - IMDB
Dr. Bong - Comic Vine- Game Spot
Page 13
Logan - popsugar.com
Page 14
Gilmore Girls Logo - New Country
Rory 1 - Flickr
Rory 2 - ED2010.com
Page 15
Rory - Flickr
Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life Logo - Fanart.tv
Page 16
Rory Newsroom - Pinterest
Rory & Amenpour - Bustle
Page 17
Rory & Logan - Bustle
Rory - Brit + Co.
18 FICTION May 2018

Works Cited
Lutes, J. M. (2006). Front-page girls: women journalists in American culture and fiction, 1880-1930.
Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Laprade, R. (2014, October 28). EXTRA! EXTRA! 5 NOTEWORTHY JOURNALISTS IN THE MARVEL
UNIVERSE. Retrieved February 11, 2018, from https://news.marvel.com/comics/23556/extra_extra_5_
noteworthy_journalists_in_the_marvel_universe/
Lavery, D., & Diffrient, D. S. (2010). Screwball Television: Critical Perspectives on Gilmore Girls. Syracuse
University Press.
Ehrlich, M. C., & Saltzman, J. (2017). Heroes and scoundrels: The image of the journalist in popular
culture.
Plummer, Jessica. (2016). Don’t Stop The Presses: Why We Need Journalists In Comics.
Sherman-Palladino, Amy & Palladino, Dan. 2000-2007. Gilmore Girls. Hollywood, CA: Warner Brothers,
CW.
Sherman-Palladino, Amy & Palladino, Dan. 2016. Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. Hollywood, CA: Netflix.
Sterling, C. H. (2009). Encyclopedia of Journalism. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE Publications, Inc. 2153-
2154
Weinraub, B. (1997, October 12). Bad Guys, Good Guys: Journalists in the Movies. Retrieved February
11, 2018, from http://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/13/movies/bad-guys-good-guys-journalists-in-themovies.html
FICTION May 2018 19

“Notions of what
a journalist is
and does are more
likely to have come
from reading about
journalists in novels,
short stories, and
comic books, and
from seeing them in
movies, television
programs, plays, and
20 FICTION May 2018
cartoons”
(Heroes & Scoundrels, 2)
Andria Graeler
GRaduate Seminar
J. Hutson
4 may 2018