Building Boundaries: The Depiction of Digital Journalists in Popular Culture

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine the depiction of digital journalists in popular culture. Researchers conducted a textual analysis of the films Contagion (2011) and State of Play (2009) and the television series House of Cards (2013-2018) and Veep (2012-2019). They found that digital journalists are not depicted as “real” journalists, digital journalists typically are bad when they attempt to do “real” journalism, digital journalists sometimes do “real” journalism, and digital journalists are unethical. These findings are then discussed in terms of boundary work and the impact of popular culture mythmaking on real-world digital journalists.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital Journalists
• journalism
• boundary work
• film‌
• television
• textual analysis

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).