Thinking Critically about Journalism through Popular Culture.

In recent years, many have called for a greater emphasis on critical thinking and critical studies within journalism and mass communication curricula (e.g., Blanchard & Christ, 1993; McLaughlin, 1994; Picard, 1985; Strohm & Baukus, 1995). "Critical thinking" and "critical studies" are not necessarily synonymous; the latter often connotes an explicitly oppositional stance to dominant media practices and institutions. But in the classroom, both represent an effort to link professional media education to the liberal arts. Shoemaker (1993, p. 103) says courses in critical thinking do this by fostering "such skills as asking intelligent questions, supporting arguments with appropriate evidence, uncovering assumptions, and examining assumptions from multiple points of view." Similarly, Parisi (1992, p. 5) argues that critical studies serve the goals of a broad liberal arts education by "viewing--and teaching--journalism whole, in its historical, literary, political, economic, and philosophical dimensions." This article discusses a course aimed at helping students in a professionally-oriented program to think critically about journalism by watching movies about it. The movies represented Hollywood's depictions of the press over more than six decades. In addition to watching the movies, students were required to complete an extensive reading list and write a series of papers analyzing the movies and readings. Others have used movies in media classes as part of a discussion of specific concerns like ethics and gender (e.g., Talbott, 1994; Wilkins, 1987). While this course also addressed those concerns, its goal was to study journalism more broadly as a practice and institution by analyzing movies as a long-running commentary on the press (Pauly, 1991). In particular, the course asked students to consider whether the movies portrayed journalism positively or negatively. Portrayals in movies If articles in the mainstream media and trade press are any indication, journalists do not like the way they are typically portrayed on the big screen (e.g., Gersh, 1991; Rowe, 1992; Ryan, 1985; Sayre, 1975). In the words of one such article--written only half in jest--Hollywood is to blame for "those loathsome misconceptions that journalists are hard-drinking, foul-mouthed, dim-witted social misfits concerned only with twisting the truth into scandal and otherwise devoid of conscience, respect for basic human dignity or a healthy fear of God" (Rowe, 1992, p. 27). Some film critics and media scholars agree that the movies' depiction of journalism is generally negative (e.g., Good, 1989; Manvell, 1978). But others (e.g., Robards, 1990; Rossell, 1978; Vaughn & Evensen, 1991) see a more mixed portrayal. Barris's (1976) book on journalism movies includes chapters titled "The Reporter as Scandalmonger" and " The Reporter as Villain," but also ones on "The Reporter as Crime Buster" and "The Reporter as Crusader." The program from a Library of Congress (1990, p. 4) exhibit on the "Paradox of the Press" says while fictional portrayals of journalism can foster "myths providing dangerous illusions that distort Americans' understanding," they also can "raise important ethical questions about the press or entertainingly capture an element of the journalist's character" (see also Ghiglione, 1990, pp. 97-162). And Zynda (1979, p. 32) offers an especially intriguing argument: "As the press serves as a watchdog on government, so Hollywood, likewise on behalf of the public and with a like commercial basis, keeps an eye on the press." I assigned students to read many of these articles at the outset of the course to help frame their thinking about the movies' portrayal of journalism. The readings suggested that journalists view their work much differently from the way many others view it. This, in turn, encouraged students to cast a critical eye not only on the movies' image of journalism, but also journalism's self-image. …