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Scholars have called for cultural analyses of the press that are more attuned to journalists’ self-image as disciples of facts and truth while also critically examining the contradictions within that self-image. Popular representations of journalism such as motion pictures are one fruitful site of inquiry. This article studies American movies’ depictions of ‘bad journalists’, characters who in many ways contradict the image of upstanding professionalism that the press tries to promote. Although real-life journalists over the years have often objected to such portrayals, ‘bad journalist’ characters still have helped shore up the press’s preferred self-image, either by seeing through lies and pretense to the truth or by paying the price for not telling the truth.

The processes surrounding the birth of organizations have been explained on the basis of structural contingency, resource dependency, population ecology, and institutional theories. In general, these theories view the role of communication and interpretation as largely unproblematic. We argue that strategically ambiguous messages play a key role in the birth of loosely coupled organizations. The successful birth is contingent on these messages being interpreted differently by key constituencies in the organization's environment. A case study is presented in support of this argument.

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Whether it's the rule-defying lifer, the sharp-witted female newshound, or the irascible editor in chief, the journalists portrayed in popular culture have shaped our views of the press and its role in a free society since mass culture arose over a century ago. Drawing on portrayals of journalists in television, film, radio, novels, comics, plays, and other media, this book surveys how popular media have depicted the profession across time. The book's creative use of media artifacts provides thought-provoking forays into such fundamental issues as how pop culture mythologizes and demythologizes key events in journalism history and how it confronts issues of race, gender, and sexual orientation on the job. From Network to The Wire, from Lois Lane to Mikael Blomkvist, the book reveals how portrayals of journalism's relationship to history, professionalism, power, image, and war influence our thinking and the very practice of democracy.