Difference

Abstract

This chapter looks at how popular culture portrays journalists as being different from everyone else and how it treats differences among journalists themselves. Journalists have been criticized for seeing themselves as being different from everyone else—as somehow standing above and beyond the rest of the citizenry. At the same time, the struggles of journalists who are not male, white, or heterosexual have been well documented, as have the difficulties of the mainstream press in covering gender, race, and sexual orientation. In pop culture, journalism has been portrayed as a particularly difficult career choice for women, who are caught between culture's “gendered” expectations of them as being caring and nurturing and the gendered expectations of journalists as being tough and independent. The difficulties of ethnic minority and LGBT journalists have also been depicted, with some of the most interesting portrayals having been produced by minority and/or gay or lesbian authors or directors.