This thesis aims to provide an insight into the stereotypical imagery of journalists on the screen and its changes in popular culture, namely in film. Much research has been done on categorising different filmic characters and on journalist in popular culture as well as in real life, but from my knowledge no comparative approach focussing on the changes in the filmic stereotypes has been undertaken yet. Therefore my literature review covers existing research on journalists in film and the various categories scholar do put these characters in. Using qualitative content analysis, namely by watching and opposing sixteen selected movies, this study aims to give some in-depth view into the question if and how filmic stereotypes have changed over the approximately seventy years that lie between the films from the first (1930-1949) and second (1990-2004) period of analysis. In eight comparative chapters this study argues that some stereotypes have changed while others remain the same. Influential factors for these changes as found in the thesis are for example history, culture and audience expectation. The reason some stereotypes do not change is that they are deeply embedded in American myth that is even harder to change than stereotypes. The thesis concludes that most journalistic figures underwent considerable changes or even disappeared with only the crusading journalist, as a mythical heroic figure, hardly changed at all.

The last ten years two major movies about journalists have been made in Sweden; Sprängaren and Män som hatar kvinnor. This study has looked closer at the heroine Annika Bengtsson and the hero Mikael Blomkvist from these two movies. Since movies do have great influence on how we see the world it is important to find out how these characters are being portrayed. Also, in a time when journalism is about to become a female dominant occupation it is relevant to see how the female journalist compares to the male. It is important to ensure that the films do not give a wrongful picture of male and female journalists. Women should not only be an inferior object, and the man should not be a dominant and macho-man. In our study we found that these movies have come a long way from the stereotypes of men and women that the audience has become used to. The male hero has a soft side and needs help from a strong female character to manage while the female hero is a strong woman who can manage on her own. And it is their ability to step away from the stereotypes that in the end helps them get the scoop and defeat their antagonists.