In the period from 1997 to 2008 seventy-one films were made about journalism for cinema release in the UK (see Table 1). As noted in the previous chapter, by films ‘about’ journalism I refer to films in which one or more of the main characters is a journalist. Within this category there will be primary and secondary representations, depending on whether the role of the journalist is instrumental or incidental.

If that distinction is clear enough, let me note that, given the blurred nature of the contemporary media environment, deciding who is and who is not a journalist is less straightforward than was once the case. One of the features of our age is the blurring of many social and cultural categories, including those which mark out professions and distinguish them from each other, and from other occupational categories.

Is a radio talk show host, or the folksy presenter who talks about him or herself on radio and TV, a journalist? I will say yes, for the same reason that the lifestyle columnist in print (as played by Steve Carell in Dan in Real Life) is reasonably categorised as a journalist, even though he undertakes no reportage, and rarely discusses anything to do with politics, economics or the state of foreign relations. Steve's Dan, like the kind of character who appears in Oliver Stone's Talk Show (1988), and again in The Brave One (Neil Jordan, 2007), reflects the emergence in the twentieth century of a journalistic culture infused with licensed introspection and personalised reflection on the issues of the day.