Will there ever be a great film or TV series about online journalism?

I have a feeling this movie won't be made soon. Source: Universal pictures

Journalism has been depicted in various cinematic incarnations over the years. One of my absolute favorites is the way the profession was presented in Federico Fellini's 1960 film La Dolce Vita, or "The Sweet Life" in English. In that film, Fellini's hero, Marcello is presented as a James Bond of the gossip world of Rome's upper-class, chic circles. He cavorts with the rich and famous, voluptuous movie stars and bored, dissatisfied wealthy married women. Attractive, bored wealthy married women (hello, Anouk Aimee).


15 years later however, journalism was depicted in a very, very different light. Alan J. Pakula's superb film chronicling Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's investigation into the Nixon administration's Watergate scandal in All The President's Men, is as far removed from La Dolce Vita as one can imagine. Tuxedos at night (and dawn) are replaced by slept-in rumpled shirts, spacious Italian castles are replaced by cramped, cluttered dimly lit apartments and champagne all hours of the night is replaced by bitter newsroom coffee. One does sound more appealing than the other of course - until the final moments of each film presents themselves. Marcello has lost his desire to write, to be a journalist, be a novelist, be a husband, to basically do anything but immerse himself in debauchery and a life of unrealized dreams and ultimate emptiness. Woodward and Bernstein work feverishly away at their crummy, small news desks, reporting news that not only could - but did change political and world history.

Now since then, there have been many movies about the profession of journalism - some have been absolutely astounding (The Insider), some very good (Almost Famous, Zodiac, Shattered Glass) some good (The Paper, Spotlight, Salvador, How To Lose Friends and Alienate People), some have been not that good (Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas) and some, nobody even (or cares to) remember (I Love Trouble which featured Julia Roberts and Nick Nolte as two reporters who loathe each other - but still made time to share a love scene - I'll leave it there).

There have even been a number of great TV shows over the last 20 years depicting journalism. Some of my favorites are the 90's series Newsradio - one of the funniest shows of the 90's (and in a decade featuring Seinfeld, Spin City and The Simpsons - that's saying something) and although, it wasn't about journalism, no other show has ever captured the frantic pace, stress and collaborative effort involved in creating a nightly broadcast than the thrilling Sports Night. In fact Sports Night was so good that when that shows same creator, Aaron Sorkin actually created a show about broadcast journalism, The Newsroom, it paled in just about every way to the superior Sports Night.

They really don't make 'em this good anymore Source: Author

 

So why I ask has there never really been a show about online journalism? I mean, some would argue that online journalism is the future of journalism itself. I think the closest I've seen regarding the reach of online journalism depicted in a recent series was during season one of Netflix's House of Cards where reporter Zoe Barnes is fed information by senator Frank Underwood and then printed on thewashingtonherald.com. However, a number of people took issue with that series depiction of online journalists in that they engage in "bad behaviour." But House of Cards had its defenders regarding online journalism as well, but then again, The Guardian pretty much hammered home the "House of Cards journalists are bad" line of reasoning with their article which was pointedly titled "Why are all the House of Cards journalists so bad at journalism?"


So with all that, I suppose we are still a ways off before we see a decent series regarding online journalism anytime soon. Of course we have shows about online hackers (Mr. Robot) and online magazine writers (The Great Indoors) but none about online journalism specifically. Perhaps when the third season of Twin Peaks airs on Showtime this coming May, they'll feature a local online journalist writing about the weird events going on in that town. I just hope they don't type backwards.