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Adversary for a strange hero: depictions of journalists in Showtime's Dexter with comparisons to Jeff Lindsay's novel Darkly dreaming Dexter

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Adversary for a strange hero: depictions of journalists in Showtime's Dexter with comparisons to Jeff Lindsay's novel Darkly dreaming Dexter

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Adversary For a Strange Hero
Depictions of Journalists in Showtime's Dexter
With Comparisons to Jeff Lindsay's novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter
By Shea Huffman

A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
JOURNALISM
2013

Copyright 2013 Shea Huffman

Shea Huffman
2

Adversary for a Strange Hero: Depictions of Journalists in Showtime's Dexter With
Comparisons to Jeff Lindsay's novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter
Abstract
This paper analyzes portrayals of journalism in the Showtime series Dexter with
comparisons to the show's primary source material, the novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff
Lindsay. The portrayals of journalists in the show mostly fit into the show's use of recognizable
crime drama conventions, fulfilling the role of self-interested adversary to the police tasked with
solving murders. These conventions, particularly those that apply to journalists, are the primary
frame of reference for analyzing portrayals of journalism within the show. Dexter, however, is
not a conventional crime drama, as the protagonist is himself a serial killer hiding in plain sight
as a blood-spatter analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department. The show exploits as well as
parodies many crime drama conventions to simultaneously create sympathy for the murderous
Dexter and poke fun at America's morbid interest in gruesome crime scene investigation shows.
While the show mostly maintains a conventional crime drama portrayal of journalists as
obstructions to be overcome by the police, it does not portray them as outright enemies, instead
showing them as selfish agents of the sensational media at worst, and potential allies of the
police (and occasionally of Dexter himself) through either manipulation or outright cooperation
at best. In fact, police often use the media as a political tool throughout the series, and reporters
are depicted more as a natural part of the social system surrounding the public sphere of crime
fighting.
The character of newspaper reporter Christine Hill in the series's fourth season also
figures prominently, as her nature as a journalist plays a significant role in the audience's
perception of her character. Dexter uses conventions established around aggressive female
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reporters to frame Hill's complex character in a way viewers could understand, especially
considering her surprise revelation as an antagonist. The character is not entirely consistent with
portrayals of antagonistic journalists in other crime dramas, however, as her actions as a
journalist are not uniformly negative. Her emergence as an enemy of the police is not because of
any journalistic career motivations, but rather due to her own mental instability regarding her
father (himself a serial killer).
Depictions of journalists in Darkly Dreaming Dexter, by comparison, are almost entirely
negative, mostly focusing on the image of the anonymous reporter. Since the novel is written in
the first person perspective of the serial killer Dexter Morgan, the portrayals of journalists must
be viewed through the prism of that character's mind, and the author's intentions in creating it.
The negative portrayals of journalists are not a result of Lindsay's own views of reporters, but
rather a product of his attempt to accurately capture the superiority complex inherent in the
mindset of a psychopathic murderer. Lindsay plays upon the obstructionist archetype of the
anonymous journalist seen in crime and mystery genres to emphasize the character Dexter's
derision for those involved in professions of investigation that he views as inferior in their ability
to understand the minds of killers.

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Contents
Abstract 2
Methodology 5
Literature Review 6
Series Summary 8
Journalism Portrayals In General 14
I. Role and Impact in Dexter 14
II. Crime Drama Conventions 15
III. Real Crime Reporting 21
Christine Hill 23
I. Role and Impact in Dexter 23
II. Crime Drama Conventions 25
III. Female Reporter Conventions 26
The Source Material – Darkly Dreaming Dexter 30
I. Anonymous and Sensationalist Reporter Conventions 30
II. Negative Portrayals as a Tool for Characterization 32
Conclusion 35
Footnotes 37
Bibliography 39
Appendix I: Journalist Appearance Summary in the Showtime Series Dexter 43
Appendix II: Significant Journalist Appearances or References in the novel Darkly
Dreaming Dexter
48

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5

Methodology
The purpose of this study is to examine the attitude of Showtime's Dexter toward the
press through its general portrayal of journalists throughout the series's first three seasons, and
through its portrayal of the character Christine Hill during the fourth season. Comparisons to
portrayals in the novel also provide insight into how the different media and genres, as well as
different authors, result in different images of journalists. The novel, originally published in
2004, was read in e-book format and each portrayal or appearance of journalists was catalogued
and copied. Episodes of the series were viewed through on-demand cable services, DVDs, and
recordings. The series aired from 2006 till 2011. Analysis focuses on only the first four seasons
in order to devote attention to the character Christine Hill, using the preceding three seasons to
provide context to her portrayal and the series's general attitudes toward journalism. The IJPC
database was used to select which episodes to focus on for analysis, since entries identifying
episodes with journalistic content were already compiled, though every episode was viewed in its
entirety at least once. Some episodes included only minor portrayals of journalism, such as
television news reports shown in the background of a scene. Some such scenes are not listed due
to their insignificance. Information regarding specific portrayals of journalism was compiled in
a list including season, episode, and time code information, as well as summaries of each
portrayal.

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Literature Review
Research into Dexter has previously focused mostly on the psychological characteristics
of the character of Dexter, primarily dealing with the accuracy of his portrayal as serial killer and
the social implications of his actions. William R. Force analyzed the methods Dexter uses to
blend in his article "The Code of Harry: Performing Normativity in Dexter." Bella DePaulo's
collection of articles in The Psychology of Dexter similarly looks at the different ways Dexter
uses psychological research to portray accurate but appealing motivations for Dexter, as well as
for his interactions with other characters.
Other studies focus on Dexter's unique appeal that has created such a loyal fanbase,
considering the macabre nature of his character. Shona Hill and Shilinka Smith analyze Dexter's
use of horror and serial killer genre conventions to attract fans,
1
while Isabel Santaularia
similarly explores in her article "Dexter: Villain, Hero or Simply a Man? The Perpetuation of
Traditional Masculinity in Dexter," how the show plays with serial killer and vigilante genres to
create appeal. Jasmin Teuteberg also analyzes Dexter's sympathetic nature in her article,
2
and
J.M. Tyree offers a valuable analysis of Dexter's appeal through its parody of crime drama
conventions in his article "Spatter Pattern."
Little academic material has been written directly on Dexter's source material, the novel
Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay. Most articles that mention the book usually do so
only in reference to the television adaptation.
Caley Cook's unpublished master's thesis "Law & Disorder" analyzing the Law and
Order series offers comparison between media portrayals in a traditional crime drama, which are
almost uniformly negative, showing journalists as selfish obstructionists. Joe Saltzman's book
Frank Capra and the Image of the Journalist in American Film also provides perspective on
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general portrayals of reporters, especially in the case of the "anonymous" journalist. The
Revolution Was Televised The Cops, Crooks, Slingers and Slayers Who Changed TV Drama
Forever by Alan Sepinwall in one chapter provides useful insights into the HBO series The Wire
as a comparison to crime drama conventions in other cable television shows. Jason Mittel's
Genre and Television: From Cop Shows to Cartoons in American Culture also offers insight into
the development of the early crime drama and its conventions, specifically in the series Dragnet.
In Girl Reporter: Gender, Journalism, and the Movies, Howard Good offers
comprehensive history and analysis of the female reporter archetype, useful in comparison to the
character Christine Hill. Saltzman's essay "Sob Sisters: The Image of the Female Journalist in
Popular Culture," similarly provides a perspective on the development of portrayals of female
journalists in popular culture. Alexa Milan's article "Modern Portrayals of Journalism in Film"
explores the image of the reporter in film in depth and also provides useful insight into a number
of portrayals of female journalists who engage in romantic relationships with sources.
James Garafalo's "NCCD Research Review: Crime and the Mass Media: a Selective
Review of Research," provides useful reference for nonfictional examples of crime reporting,
giving a certain level of context to portrayals in Dexter. The review also offers analysis of
portrayals of police work and criminal activity in television crime dramas, which is useful in
applying context to Dexter as a crime and serial killer drama itself.
Grant Duwe's article "Body-Count Journalism: The Presentation of Mass Murder in the
News Media" offers analysis of media coverage of mass murders, such as the Columbine High
School shooting in 1999. While not directly applicable to portrayals in Dexter, the article again
offers some context and useful points of comparison for real patterns of behavior and reporting
among news media.
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Series Summary
Dexter, screenwriter James Manos, Jr.'s adaptation of Jeff Lindsay's novel, Darkly
Dreaming Dexter, is a crime drama and serial killer thriller that centers on Dexter Morgan
(Michael C. Hall), a blood-spatter expert working for the Miami Metro Police Department who
secretly leads a second life as a serial killer. Dexter murders only other killers who evade the
normal criminal justice system either by avoiding detection or exploiting the bureaucracy of the
system. He kills according to this pattern because of the "Code of Harry," the set of rules to kill
only criminals and to avoid detection given to Dexter by his adoptive father Harry Morgan, the
detective who found Dexter and his brother at the scene of their mother's brutal murder. The
show also focuses on Dexter's relationships with his stepsister, Debra (Jennifer Carpenter), his
girlfriend and eventual wife, Rita Bennett (Julie Benz), and his colleagues at the Miami Metro
Police Department. Each season typically has a central theme of a conflict posed to Dexter, such
as dealing with another serial killer, evading detection by federal investigators, or dealing with
his own internal conflicts over his desires to keep killing and to raise a family at the same time.
The fourth season is of particular interest because of the introduction of Miami Tribune
reporter Christine Hill (Courtney Ford). At the outset of the season, Dexter struggles with his
new role as father to his newborn son, Harrison, while still trying to maintain his secret life as a
killer. While investigating another murderer known as the Trinity Killer, he discovers that the
man, named Arthur Mitchell (John Lithgow) has seemingly successfully raised a family of his
own while still secretly killing. Dexter is intrigued by this and holds off on his normal process of
killing Mitchell in the hopes of learning how he balances his two lives. Meanwhile, Christine
Hill begins reporting on homicide cases handled by Miami Metro and begins a romantic
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relationship with Detective Joseph Quinn (Desmond Harrington), a relationship she sometimes
abuses to gain access to privileged information. Late in the season, Hill is revealed to be the
estranged daughter of Arthur Mitchell, and was acting all along to protect her father out of a
twisted sense of devotion, even going so far as to murder a former FBI agent and critically
wound Dexter's stepsister Debra. At the end of the season, Hill commits suicide out of guilt.

In Darkly Dreaming Dexter: The novel provided much of the source material for the first
season of the series, with essentially the same premise, characters, and plot. A series of
mysterious murders with messages seemingly aimed toward the main character lead Dexter
Morgan closer to the killer. Dexter in the meantime deals with his own urges to kill while
managing his relationships with his stepsister Deborah and girlfriend Rita. Characters like
Detective LaGuerta and Captain Matthews are more emphasized than in the series for their desire
to use the press to further their own political careers in the police department. Beyond the first
season of the series, the novels and show diverge considerably in narrative and tone.

Major Characters
Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall): Dexter is the series's main protagonist, a serial killer who
hides in plain sight as a blood spatter analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department. Dexter is
unique as a killer in that he only murders other killers, a practice instilled in him by his adoptive
father, Harry Morgan, who as a detective recognized Dexter's homicidal impulses and hoped to
help Dexter avoid detection, as well as to channel his bloodlust into a purpose that would serve
society. In the first season, Dexter traces his dark desires back to the scene of his mother's
gruesome murder, where Harry found him and his brother sitting in a pool of blood next to her
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corpse. Dexter also discovers his brother, Brian Moser, to be the other serial killer who acted as
the first season's antagonist, a case that prompted nearly all of the early portrayals of media in
the series. Moser had been stalking Dexter, hoping to convince him to begin killing alongside
him without regard for their victim's guilt or innocence, starting with Dexter's adoptive sister,
Debra. Dexter rejects Brian's offer and kills him, choosing not to entirely abandon his humanity.
Dexter's discovery of empathetic feelings uncharacteristic of serial killers becomes a developing
theme throughout the show, as he struggles with his desire to become "normal" through his
relationships with Debra and later, his wife Rita and son Harrison, and his other desire to fully
embrace his "Dark Passenger," the name he gives to his impulse to kill. The struggle leads him
into different conflicts each season, as when he experiments with working with an accomplice,
such as Miguel Prado, and when he delays killing Arthur Mitchell in order to study his success
living with a family while still killing. Dexter has few direct interactions with journalists, though
his actions sometimes create or influence media attention, especially during the second season
when his victims are discovered.

Debra/Deborah Morgan (Jennifer Carpenter): Dexter's adoptive sister begins the series as a
junior officer within Miami Metro, but using her intuition quickly climbs the ranks to become
detective. She offers Dexter another source of human connection beside that of his significant
other, Rita. Often, Debra is frustrated by her brother's occasional coldness and also harbors
jealousy over the extra attention Dexter received from Harry. Many secondary storylines follow
"Deb," as she investigates murder cases alongside other detectives. Her headstrong, foul-
mouthed demeanor sometimes lands her in difficult situations and her sense of honor puts her at
odds with the more politically motivated members of the police force. She has a tragic dating
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history, as she unknowingly dates Dexter's serial killer brother (who attempts to kill her). Her
later lover, an FBI agent, is murdered by Christine Hill. She draws intermittent media attention
both due to her personal tragedies and as well as her police work, but she generally does not
handle the media well.

Maria/Migdia LaGuerta (Lauren Vélez): Leader of Miami Metro's Homicide Department,
LaGuerta is highly politically motivated, as she constantly makes decisions on cases based on
how she can leverage the media attention for her personal gain. She is not entirely selfish,
however, and still maintains a sense of duty and loyalty toward her detectives. She also has a
number of romantic relationships, past and ongoing, that complicate her actions during the series.

James Doakes (Erik King): A detective with Miami Metro, Doakes is the only colleague of
Dexter's who correctly suspects him of being more than he appears. Doakes is aggressive, but
has a keen instinct that makes him a natural leader in the police department. In earlier episodes,
he often butts heads with Dexter, and later he as becomes more suspicious he begins actively
investigating Dexter's actions. He eventually discovers Dexter's true nature, but is killed by
another character and becomes discredited when he is blamed for the serial killings in the "Bay
Harbor Butcher" case, allowing Dexter's kills to evade the media glare.

Joseph Quinn (Desmond Harrington): Quinn is introduced in the third season as a
replacement detective for Doakes. He is similar to Debra in that he has a natural intuition that
helps him solve cases. However, Quinn has his own flaws, as he abuses his authority as a
detective, and his womanizing tendencies lead him into many conflicts. In fact, his romantic
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relationship with Christine Hill allows her to get close to the department and obtain the
information she uses both in her articles and in her efforts to protect her father, Arthur Mitchell.

Miguel Prado (Jimmy Smits): Miami's assistant district attorney and main antagonist of the
third season. Prado is an aggressive prosecutor and as such is well liked by police and the people
of Miami. But he is frustrated also by cases he cannot win, believing criminals walk free with
the help of opposing attorneys like Ellen Wolf. After the death of his brother, Oscar, Prado
swears to exact personal justice upon his supposed killer, Fred Bowman (AKA "Freebo"), but
discovers Dexter shortly after he killed Bowman instead. Prado praises Dexter for his actions,
and eventually convinces him to pursue other kills, becoming in effect Dexter's first
"apprentice." Prado becomes one of the few characters in the series to discover Dexter's true
nature and accept him for it, but he eventually becomes unstable and kills the "mostly innocent"
Ellen Wolf and threatens Dexter. Prado is a personal antagonist for Dexter, as he becomes very
close to him, convincing Dexter he could finally have a friend who saw him for what he really
was, but he was ultimately betrayed when Prado's selfish ambition caused him to grow out of
control. At the end of the season, Prado plans to kill Maria LaGuerta, but Dexter abducts and
kills him before he can. Prado's character is a public figure in Dexter's Miami, and as such
makes some media appearances, but they are surprisingly limited, so he is notable for a lack
involvement with the media as well, especially considering his role as an antagonist.

Arthur Mitchell (John Lithgow): The serial killer known as the Trinity Killer, Mitchell is the
primary antagonist of season four. Mitchell kills in a pattern of three every decade according to
the manner in which his own family was killed. Dexter discovers his identity toward the middle
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of the season, and becomes obsessed with Mitchell because of his apparent success in raising a
family while still killing. Dexter discovers Mitchell's family relationship is, in fact, highly
abusive, and his hesitation to kill Mitchell has disastrous effects when Mitchell decides to kill
Dexter's wife, Rita. Before discovering Rita has died, however, Dexter captures and kills
Mitchell. Like Dexter, he does not directly interact with journalists, but his actions as a killer
greatly influence media attention, scrutiny that pressures nearly every character on the show.

Christine Hill (Courtney Ford): A reporter with the Miami Herald, Hill is an aggressive
reporter during season four who takes advantage of a romantic relationship with Joseph Quinn to
gain access to privileged information. She seems to have genuine feelings for Quinn, though,
and they continue their relationship. She presents a sympathetic character, pressured by her
editor while trying to manage her love life. Toward the end of the season, however, she is
revealed to be the estranged daughter of Arthur Mitchell. The audience finds out Hill had
actually witnessed one of her father's previous murders, and became obsessed with protecting
him to garner his affection. She uses her relationship with Quinn to find information and warn
her father, and even murders an FBI agent who came close to catching Mitchell. She is exposed
at the end of the season, after her father rejects her despite her efforts to help him. Distraught
and guilt-ridden, she commits suicide at the end of the season.
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Journalism Portrayals in General
Journalists and the news media appear numerous times in Dexter, though prior to the
fourth season, many are marginal portrayals. The most common depictions are either a
television news report recapping the details of a murder case or television reports providing
simple background noise for a scene.
3
Some portrayals do play significant roles, however, and
demonstrate how the series uses recognizable conventions regarding journalists to advance the
plot. Notable examples include police discussions of media as political tools, negotiations
between police and newspaper editors over publishing a serial killer's manifesto, and the constant
and sometimes disruptive presence of news media at high-profile crime scenes
4
. The portrayals
seem to demonstrate a somewhat balanced, if unglamorous, view of the media, as journalists
rarely emerge as heroes, but instead appear as just another part of the system characters can
manipulate to their own end. Dexter's handling of the subject is simple, but not one-dimensional.
I. Role and Impact in Dexter
Prior to the introduction of Christine Hill, depictions of journalists in Dexter serve
primarily as tools for plot exposition for other characters or parts of the story, rather than as
distinct plot elements on their own that carry stronger rhetorical messages. The portrayals seem
to support the larger intentions of the show to utilize and parody the conventions of increasingly
morbid crime-scene investigation dramas such as CSI, and are best viewed through that context.
As Allesandra Stanley observed in her review before the series's premiere: "The show,
which begins on Sunday, is based on a crime novel by Jeff Lindsay, 'Darkly Dreaming Dexter,'
but it serves as the next step in the relentless escalation of eroticized violence on television, a
'CSI' for premium cable."
5
Many elements of Dexter, from the characterization of Dexter and
other characters to the visual style of the set design, parody crime dramas and, "the jargon of
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crime labs and the endless nightly televised entertainment of gore-soaked crime scenes."
6
The
show uses the audience's understanding and recognition of the conventions it manipulates in
order to engender support for Dexter and his morally ambiguous actions as a serial killer.
Certain conventions regarding the horror and serial killer genres come into play as well.
Two characteristics often define killers, especially psychopaths, in fictional media like the crime
drama genre: violence linked to masculinity, and a sense of justice.
7
These conventions of horror
and thriller genres share much in common with crime drama conventions, as the violent
motivations of the fictional killers often manifest as a response to a disruption of social and
moral order, at least in the killers's minds.
8
Crime dramas have their own appeal as well, as they
generally feature characters that fit into recognizable social roles of victims, criminals, and
heroes, providing an easy-to-understand explanation for criminal behavior.
9

This is the context in which the usage of the more general media portrayals in Dexter can
be seen, as their relation to other characters helps establish the conventions the series reinforces
and those it parodies. The media as a constant source of background noise or plot exposition
10

therefore demonstrate that the offhand portrayals are used more to establish the setting of the
series as a crime drama or to help characterize the rest of the cast, especially supporting members.
II. Crime Drama Conventions
A significant method Dexter uses to create sympathy for its main character is the
disarming use of dark humor and casual treatment of death and the human body, which also has
its own appeal.
11
Likewise, portrayals of journalists in the series, while similar in many ways to
conventional crime drama depictions, are decidedly more light-hearted, or at least neutral,
considering their utilization for plot purposes. This is a slight contrast to portrayals in other
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crime dramas, such as Law and Order, which are almost entirely negative, though Dexter does
not stray far from established conventions.
In her unpublished master's thesis "Law and Disorder" Caley Cook describes the image
of the journalist portrayed by the Law and Order series as one that is almost entirely negative.
The "manipulative journalist" is one particular image that recurs frequently.
12
Similarly, in her
paper "Digging Up Dirt And Reporting Lies: The Image of the Journalist in the Television Series
Bones" Alexandria Yeager observes that journalists in the crime drama Bones are often
exploitative and self-interested.
13
Investigators in that series, Yeager observes, are hostile
toward journalists, and with good reason, as many of those portrayed often use their talents to
profit off of other's suffering, such as publishing books about serial killers.
14
In its more general
depictions of journalists, however, Dexter does not portray them as particularly devious or
manipulative. There are a few scenes in which news media interfere with police, however, that
portray journalists as intrusive, such as in the third episode of season two, when an officer
embarrasses herself when being asked about a case.
15
In that case, though, the officer's personal
problems also play a role, implying the media were just a natural part of the public environment
that she failed to handle. The show tends to favor such interactions to characterize members of
the police force rather than to express any specific idea about the news media.
The anonymous crowd of journalists is another portrayal of reporters common to crime
dramas in film and television that appears in Dexter. In other crime dramas like Law and Order,
the image of a crowd of reporters harassing police at crime scenes or outside courthouses is
common. As Yeager observes of the series Bones, "Journalists primarily serve as obstacles
through anonymous journalists or journalists who only appear in one episode. In both instances,
the characters are underdeveloped and given little if any back story, making it easy for viewers to
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see them with disdain because they don’t even seem like real people."
16
This similarly
characterizes a number of appearances of the anonymous journalist in Dexter, though characters
are not particularly hostile or disruptive in comparison to other crime dramas.
17

In his book Frank Capra and the Image of the Journalist in American Film, Joe Saltzman
observes the trope of the anonymous press is a powerful image, especially when used to
negatively portray journalists as obstructionist or harassing – often applied to the paparazzi:
This image of a harassing press with no valid reason for its insistence is a
dangerous one. It undermines the public's trust in the media and directly conflicts
with the movie and television image of the reporter as hero. One result is that the
public has turned against reporters, concluding that journalists are obnoxious,
interested only in their own egos, not the public interest, and that laws should be
passed to stop reporters from harassing innocent people.
18

One archetype Cook observes that appears often in Dexter is that of the easily
manipulated media. "But journalists in Law & Order are also easily manipulated. Lawyers and
defendants in the franchise use the media to orchestrate their elaborate publicity schemes and
manipulate the media into a circus for their own benefit. The media are particularly easy to
manipulate in Law & Order because they are portrayed as dumber and less savvy than other
characters."
19
Also, in the series Bones, despite character's dislike of the media, favorable
coverage in the news often flatters characters, and in these cases the reporters in question are in
fact portrayed favorably, in contrast with much of the rest of the show.
20
This dynamic between
police and media to exploit or play off one another is portrayed in HBO's The Wire as well, as
Brian Holcomb observes in his review of that show's fifth season. "Detective McNulty finds that
no one in the Police Department cares about his investigation," says Holcomb, "until his
colleague Lester Freamon (Clarke Peters) reminds him that he has to 'sensationalize' his case and
"give the people what they want" if he is to get their attention."
21
Early in the first season
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Deputy Chief Thomas Mathews (Geoff Pierson) speaks to Lt. Maria LaGuerta about her
resistance to promoting Debra Morgan to detective: "You were a middle of the pack detective
before the press got a hold of you."
22
This exchange hints at how characters view the media as
potential political tools, a theme that is repeated throughout the series. In another case in the
second season, Dexter himself takes advantage of the media, when he is evading the FBI after his
own victims's bodies are discovered. In the episode, Dexter goes on the offensive by writing a
fake manifesto designed to confuse and distract investigators, and sends it to Miami newspapers
as well.
23
In the same episode, however, FBI agent Frank Lundy (Keith Carradine), negotiates
with the paper's editors and offers to lift an injunction if the journalists publish the manifesto
without victims's names and in less prominent placement in the paper.
24
The editors are
portrayed as somewhat more concerned over paper sales than journalistic integrity, an image
Cook identified in Law and Order,
25
but since Lundy's investigation actually is helped rather
than hindered (he is able to deceive Dexter to an extent) by the paper's actions, the media in this
case emerge more as unwitting partners for police. This happens at other points in the series as
well, suggesting journalists are portrayed more as semi-friendly adversaries rather than outright
enemies for police.
26

27

Further comparisons to HBO's The Wire also offer useful context for how crime dramas
in general have developed over time, and how their conventions play out in Dexter's portrayal of
journalists. The Wire's fifth and final season in particular introduces the journalists of The
Baltimore Sun as a new story arch, replete with their own ethical and financial struggles like the
rest of the show's subjects. As Alan Sepinwall observes of the show's lead writers in his book
The Revolution Was Televised: "With one last renewal in hand, Simon and Burns got to close
their book with a look at how the media has failed to communicate to the public all the terrible
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things we’d seen in previous years."
28
The Wire depicts widespread corruption and crime in its
portrayal of Baltimore and its inhabitants, including journalists, but does so as a critique of a
much larger failed system. In her article, "Short Circuiting the Power Grid: The Wire as Critique
of Institutional Power," Sophie Fuggle analyzed the power dynamics of society portrayed in The
Wire that determined the characters' actions: "Disciplinary power determines the existence of
everyone, the ‘docile’ bodies of the media, education system, workplace and political
administration as well as those ‘criminal’ bodies caught up in the penal system."
29
In another
article, Judd Franklin makes a similar observation of a character criticizing the institutional
poverty in The Wire's Baltimore, saying, "The philosophy that Simon is expressing here is
summed up in a hip-hop aphorism: ‘don’t hate the player, hate the game.’ This universalizing –
albeit harsh – message is central to the great political value of The Wire: no matter your race,
creed or profession, the system will have its way with you."
30
Dexter similarly depicts its more
generic journalists as simply part of a societal system, with reporters constantly pressuring police
with media attention and coverage of crimes. The system in Dexter's Miami is decidedly less
serious and dysfunctional, however, in line with the show's overall lighter tone. This departure
from a serious, authentic portrayal of crime and law enforcement seen in The Wire in favor of
more dramatic and sensational storytelling is characteristic of how the crime drama genre
evolved from its earliest incarnations into the common portrayals like CSI and Law and Order
which Dexter parodies. In his book, Genre and Television: From Cop Shows to Cartoons in
American Culture, Jason Mittell explaines how the series Dragnet established a number of
precedents the conventions of police procedurals and television crime dramas:
Dragnet's motivation was partly to present a realistic vision of police officers,
eschewing the glamorized characterization typical of most film and radio crime
dramas … The show helped link assumptions of authenticity, procedural detail,
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and gritty urban realism to the cultural category of the police genre, associations
that linger to this day.
31

Despite Dragnet's influence, though, Mittell observes that over time, modern crime dramas
eschewed the factual, emotionally-detached style of characterization in favor of sensationalized
storytelling, poetically exemplified in the 2003 remake of Dragnet by Law and Order producer
Dick Wolf.
32
In parodying the more dramatic style of modern crime dramas, Dexter does well to
use a somewhat clichéd image of anonymous, generic journalists in its earlier seasons that is
more useful for easily creating dramatic tension that drives the plot, especially for secondary
storylines like those of the characters Debra, Lundy, and Lt. LaGuerta.
Also, Dexter makes a significant omission by having almost no portrayals of journalists
during the third season. Normally the omission would not be unusual, but since the main
antagonist of the season, Miguel Prado (Jimmy Smits), is Miami's assistant district attorney, the
absence of the media around what would normally be a high-profile figure is conspicuous. As
Cook observes, the anonymous pack of reporters is exceedingly common in Law and Order,
33

especially around high-profile trials and in courthouse settings. Most of the portrayals are
negative as well: "Anonymous journalists who wave cameras, pencils and notepads often chase
characters through the streets or through the halls of the courthouse. They yell incoherent things
and confuse the 'good guy' while making the case easier for the 'bad guy.'"
34
In the third episode
of Dexter's third season, there is a scene in which Prado addresses a group of reporters outside a
courtroom after winning a case, with the defense attorney Ellen Wolf (Anne Ramsay) similarly
making a statement to the press, though she also criticizes Prado for his political ambitions.
35

This scene makes use of the anonymous media crowd convention observed by Cook in Law and
Order, but unlike those depictions, the journalists in this scene in Dexter do not seem to be
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21

interfering with the case or doing anything that would merit disdain. Indeed, considering Prado
and Wolf's somewhat political statements, the scene seems to continue the series's pattern of
characters using the media for political gain, rather than viewing journalists as enemies. This
scene, however, is the third season's only appearance of news media in a courthouse setting.
While the third season has few courthouse scenes, electing to focus less on Prado's role as
assistant district attorney and more on his personal conflicts with Dexter. Dexter in general has
few scenes focusing on criminal prosecution and trials, the lack of media in this recognizable
setting not only demonstrates how the show's creators may not consider journalists as significant
a part of the crime drama formula as other shows like Law and Order or Bones, but also
indicates the show has no objective to portray journalists in any particular light.
III. Real Crime Reporting
Judging portrayals of journalism, particularly crime reporting, that appear in Dexter in
relation to real-life crime reporting is somewhat problematic. Since the series deals both with the
life of a serial killer and the actions of the Miami police's homicide department, there may be a
sort of selection bias as almost all crime cases depicted are murders, making it difficult to
determine whether the portrayals of crime coverage are accurate. However, instances of crime
reporting in Dexter seem consistent with research in news media treatment of crime, and thus
lend the show a certain amount of credibility.
In his review of research of crime reporting, James Garofalo finds that, in general, news
media overrepresent the prevalence of crime.
36
However, Garofalo also finds that while the
prevalence of crime reporting in newspapers and on television often has little relationship with
actual violent crime rates, in a number of instances in many cities, "The ratio of the number of
media reports to the number of crimes was highest in the town with the lowest violent crime rate
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and lowest in the town with the highest violent crime rate."
37
With the Miami of Dexter, it is
unclear whether the city and its journalists conform to this pattern entirely, as only a limited
selection of crimes and news reports are shown, but judging by the instances that do appear, the
series seems consistent with Garofalo's findings. In the series's first episode, Dexter explains he
is able to operate so well as a killer because Miami has such a high rate of homicide, especially
unsolved cases.
38
This establishes Dexter's Miami as a high-crime city, and consistent with the
patterns of real reporting, news media gravitate toward high-profile cases like serial killings and
publicly visible murders. Throughout the first season, for example, portrayals of media coverage
focus mostly on the "Ice Truck Killer" serial killings,
39
while other, less prominent cases
seemingly go unreported (or the reporting is not shown). This differs somewhat from Garafalo's
findings, as he finds murder cases disproportionately represented in news media,
40
making the
press's absence in some murder cases noticeable. However, media involvement in high-profile
cases resembles real reporting more accurately.
In the second season, the remains of Dexter's victims are discovered (he dismembers
them and dumps their bodies in the nearby bay), initiating a new manhunt for a serial killer
nicknamed the "Bay Harbor Butcher" by the media. Throughout the season, Dexter muses on
the implications of his exposure, and the possibility of becoming idolized as a vigilante after his
victims are all publicly revealed as killers themselves. In one episode, a television pundit speaks
favorably of the case, reasoning that the Bay Harbor Butcher is a guardian vigilante for Miami.
41

This portrayal plays into the image of journalists as sensationalists in high-profile cases of crime
and violence. Also, as Grant Duwe observes in his article "Body Count Journalism," media play
a significant role in shaping public opinion, especially through reporting on crime:

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Identifying what is newsworthy about mass murder is, therefore, important
because the incidents that garner extensive news coverage are more likely to
influence public perceptions and social policy decisions. High-profile crimes
have been the catalyst for the identification of social problems such as missing
children, serial murder, drug violence, stalking, and money laundering. Routine
crime stories seldom foster conditions that are favorable for the social
construction of crime problems because they provide a primarily factual account
of what happened.
42

Dexter contains many such instances of media affecting public opinion, or characters
reacting with concern to the possibility of media attention. In the context of the show's other
conventions and portrayals, this reinforces the somewhat realistic image of journalists as a
natural force of the public sphere with which police must deal either negatively or positively.

Christine Hill:
I. Role and Impact in Dexter:
In season four, the series departs from its treatment of the media using only anonymous
or minor portrayals to set the tone for the rest of the plot, and directly engages the subject of
journalism through the character of Christine Hill. Hill serves a unique role as a journalist in
Dexter, as she is revealed to be an antagonist toward the end of the season, rather than remaining
yet another anonymous journalist. Before that revelation, however, her character fits into a
number of recognizable conventions regarding female journalists, both within and outside of
crime drama conventions. Hill's character is multidimensional, however, and is not defined by
her profession as a journalist, though it is used to ground her in a recognizable role. As the
actress who portrays Hill, Courtney Ford, observed in a Huffington Post interview, "When
Christine first came on the scene, I think many people thought she might just be there to serve as
a love interest for Quinn, as a bit of a romance subplot. True fans of the show know that these
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writers are some of the most skilled and intelligent out there, and simply don't write superfluous
characters."
43
Hill serves as an integral part of the season's plot, as her actions (murdering Lundy,
becoming romantically involved with Quinn) dictate the flow of the story, rather than just
providing an opportunity for the development of another character, as with other portrayals of
journalists. Hill's character barely interacts with Dexter himself, however, meaning her actions
mostly develop as part of the secondary storyline.
As a journalist, Hill has a legitimate excuse to appear at crime scenes and to probe for
information from police. Thus, her revelation as an antagonist is genuinely surprising, while also
remaining believable, since Hill did not seem out of place before. Her motivations earlier in the
series make sense both in the context of her nature as an aggressive journalist and, later, as an
emotionally disturbed person. In fact, her revelation as an antagonist almost redeems the image
of the journalist, as her attempts to take advantage of Quinn have a new dimension rather than
simple career advancement–she acts unethically because of her obsessive desperation to
reconnect with and protect her father, not just because she wants the best scoop. Her character's
motivations also make her somewhat sympathetic to the audience, as she is yet another victim of
Arthur Mitchell (who emotionally and physically abuses his wife and other children as well) and
her actions are not entirely selfish, albeit misguided. Her suicide also ads a tragic element to her
character as she suffers for her crimes, which both resolves the show's need enact justice and
wraps up her storyline. Also, Ford notes in her interview that her character raised some nuanced
issues regarding media and crime that went beyond the simple antagonism between police and
reporters: "Does it help or does it hinder the investigation by tipping off suspects? Or does it lead
to wild speculation? Sometimes you think all access is the best and you should lay the truth right
out there, but sometimes you have to let detectives do their thing. And it should be a case by case
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basis."
44
The character of Hill, like many other elements in the show, is more than a simple
caricature or archetype, though Dexter certainly utilizes traditional conventions to play with its
audience.
II. Crime Drama Conventions:
As a complex character, Hill does not conform to many crime drama conventions
surrounding journalists, as her actions are not entirely motivated by her desire to succeed as a
reporter. This does not become clear until later in the season, however, so the audience is left to
interpret her actions within the framework of the aggressive journalist archetype, but even in that
context, she is still unconventional.
Hill's initial betrayal of Quinn's trust early in the season
45
can be viewed as an attempt to
establish her as an immoral character, but in the fifth episode, she works with police to run
inaccurate information to help their investigation (compromising her career in the process),
demonstrating she can act in favor of the detectives as well. This change of heart runs contrary
to the image of the manipulative journalist Cook observed in Law and Order: "Few journalists
recant their mistakes. Not one episode of any Law & Order series showed a journalist running or
contemplating a correction."
46
Also, while Hill does print inaccurate information for the benefit
of the police, she does not do so in any other case, in contrast with other images of journalists
who "never let the truth get in the way of a good story."
47
In this way, Hill's character supports
the multidimensional image Dexter established for its adversarial, but non-malicious journalists
in earlier seasons.
After Hill's revelation as an antagonist, her character remains complex and defies crime
drama conventions for journalists. In Law and Order, other journalists who emerge as
antagonists, even as criminals, often are revealed to be motivated by their desire to be successful
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26

or famous. As Cook observes in one case of a journalist who appears trustworthy but is revealed
as a copycat killer, "Lying in wait outside a showroom to catch his next victim, he poses as a
reporter on a story. And as detectives search his home they find rejection letters from publishers
on his walls. Detectives soon find out that he began a new crime spree to get a book deal on the
original killer."
48
While Hill is similarly revealed to have abused her position as a journalist, her
motivations to become an antagonist are not tied to her career as a journalist, unlike other
antagonist journalists, whose criminal nature is often defined by their desire to advance their
journalistic careers. Hill is not necessarily a negative representation of a journalist, but she does
abuse the trust and privilege given to reporters in her efforts to protect her father.
III. Female Reporter Conventions:
As a female reporter, Hill's character necessarily draws comparison to a number of
conventions with a long history in film and television. While Hill's image is somewhat more
modern than early portrayals of female journalists, and her character is not tainted by any sexist
undertones, she still follows some recognizable conventions.
As Saltzman observes in his article, "Sob Sisters," even the modern image of the female
journalist is problematic: "Most female journalists portrayed in popular culture are seldom
shown as fully developed human beings. As historian-journalist Loren Ghiglione puts it, 'The
contemporary newswoman, while regularly cast as a tough, talented pro, often bears the burden
of being depicted as an emotionally empty Super Bitch or Super Whore.'”
49
Constantly
searching to prove herself among her male peers while still maintaining her femininity was a
common dilemma that persists to this day for female journalists in popular culture.
In his book Girl Reporter: Gender, Journalism, and the Movies, Howard Good analyzes
in one case the character of Torchy Blane, an aggressive, but heroic reporter. In analyzing
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Torchy's name, with its connotations of brashness, but also sorrow,
50
Good observes, "So
Torchy's very name recapitulates the conflict between work and love underlying her film series.
On the one hand, the name suggests her brilliance as a detective-reporter. On the other, it
suggests that loneliness and heartache wait for any woman who dares to stray beyond the
conventional boundaries of marriage, home, and family."
51
In her article, "Why Are Girl
Journalists in Movies So Lame?" Sara Libby observes this conflict between love and a
journalistic career in a number of classic films:
Seemingly every leading actress of the 1930s and '40s at one point played a
reporter who was romanced by the leading man—it was the basic plot of films
like Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), Back in Circulation (1937), and Meet John
Doe (1941). The girl aces in these stories all rely on their wiles to charm
information out of subjects or to subdue demanding editors. And then the stories
typically—and tellingly—end when the girls finally land the man, not the scoop.
52

Female reporters torn between romance and work manifest in modern examples as well, such as
the film How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days, in which a columnist trying to break out of advice-
writing cannot reconcile her job with her personal relationship, ultimately quitting at the end of
the film.
53
Sara Herman observed in her dissertation instances when female journalists chose
their careers rather than relationships: "Both Jane Craig (Broadcast News) and Megan Carter
(Absence of Malice) start up and proceed to destroy romantic partnerships with male characters.
Both relationships are ended because of a conflict of ethical interests, whereby the woman is
forced to decide, what is more important, her values, or a man."
54
Other modern films and series,
especially romances, demonstrate how pervasive and persistent this image of a female reporter
falling for a source or subject is.
55
Libby identifies and criticizes the film Crazy Heart, among
others,
56
for perpetuating an image that portrays female journalists as simply professionally
unethical, or otherwise beholden to a stereotype of women in general being incapable of sorting
out careers and romance.
57
This conflict between work and love is present in Hill's portrayal as
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28

well, at least before she becomes an antagonist. Hill seems to want a genuine relationship with
Quinn,
58
but she feels pressured by her editor in one episode to use her relationship once again to
gain special information in clear desperation for a story.
59
Hill's relationship with Quinn remains
more-or-less intact until her death, however, demonstrating how her character seemed to shirk
the convention of a female reporter who could not maintain both a career and romance, while
also fulfilling the convention of a female journalist that used those relationships
The image of female reporters who have romantic relationships with sources is also a
common portrayal, expressing the idea that young women would be willing to leverage their
sexuality to advance their careers. In real-world situations, sleeping with a source is considered
an egregious breach of ethics that compromises a reporter's impartiality and credibility, but
fictional examples often emphasize a deceit or betrayal on the part of the journalist. Alexa Milan
observes in her article how this image perpetuated in films like Woody Allen's Scoop, in which
journalism student Sondra Pransky attempts to romance a source she believes is a murderer. As
Milan states, "Sondra is not even a professional journalist – she is only a student. The movie
implies that negative behavior in the media starts before journalists become professional
reporters, that unethical choices are somehow tied to the profession."
60
Similarly, in the film
Thank You for Smoking, for example, a "young, attractive, and single" reporter named Heather
Holloway meets and has sex with tobacco lobbyist and main character Nick Naylor, but uses
information Naylor thought was privileged in a story. "Not only does Heather engage in an
inappropriate relationship with the subject of her story, but, like in Scoop, she engages in
deceptive behavior while in the relationship. She knew all along she would use all of the
information Nick gave her while he thought she actually liked him."
61
In the comedy television
series Parks and Recreation, the character of newspaper reporter Shawna Walwae-Tweep also
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gains privileged information from a source after sleeping with him, but agrees to withhold
publishing his comments only because they are in a romantic relationship.
62
Hill's character
certainly fits in with the conventional image of the female journalist who becomes romantically
involved with a source, as she betrays Quinn's trust for a scoop in a story, even before her
revelation as an antagonist. Hill eventually redeems herself to Quinn and Miami Metro (before
becoming an antagonist) by helping them publish false information, but this is somewhat
problematic as a depiction of journalistic ethics, as Hill further compromises herself to ingratiate
herself with sources. Within the context of the show, however, Hill becomes a more nuanced
character not defined by her profession alone.
Hill also shares some common traits with early depictions of female journalists in the
way she is sexualized in the series, but only until a certain point. As Good observes, images of
Torchy Blane in movie posters are blatantly eroticized,
63
demonstrating how "'Women,' art critic
John Berger once said, 'are depicted in a quite different way from men–not because the feminine
is different from the masculine–but because the 'ideal' spectator is always assumed to be male
and the image of women is designed to flatter him.'"
64
While Hill appears sexualized within the
confines of her relationship with Quinn, it still occurs within the context of the show's generally
explicit portrayals of sex. In this way, Hill is not singled out when she is sexualized.
Also, Hill's eventual undoing as an antagonist relates to early depictions of female
journalists through the peril and danger they face as a result of their reporting. But Hill's image
is not entirely consistent with the convention. Good observed of a female journalist portrayed in
a 1920s comic strip that the character was routinely kidnapped by male villains, providing "male
readers with vicarious revenge on the independent modern woman."
65
The character through her
peril carried a subtle message not to challenge traditional gender roles. Hill, on the other hand,
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faces danger and eventual death not because she challenges traditional gender roles. Instead, as a
direct, albeit slightly sympathetic, antagonist, she is undone through the need of the show's crime
drama conventions to restore social order (the criminal is killed or captured).
66
Moreover, it
seems unlikely that the show's creators would depict any kind of sexist message, considering the
presence of other strong female characters, such as Debra Morgan and Lt. Maria LaGuerta.

The Source Material – Darkly Dreaming Dexter:
Though it served as the inspiration and source material for the first season of Dexter, Jeff
Lindsay's Darkly Dreaming Dexter differs significantly from its adaptation in its portrayal of
journalists. The novel does provide an effective comparison of how a different format and style
can take advantage of some of the same conventional portrayals to produce a markedly different
image of journalists.
I. Anonymous and Sensationalist Reporter Conventions:
Darkly Dreaming Dexter features a uniformly negative portrayal of journalists as blood-
thirsty parasites eager to report on murder and violence without regard for the dignity of victims
or even the truthfulness of what they report. They are depicted as unquestioning and oblivious to
the point of being duped and deceived by the equally oblivious Lt. Migdia LaGuerta. In one
press conference in which Dexter observes LaGuerta announcing the capture of a murder suspect
he knows is the wrong man, Dexter remarks, "The press ate it up. You couldn't really blame
them, I suppose. LaGuerta did a masterful job of presenting just enough fact colored with high-
gloss wishful thinking that nearly anyone would have been convinced. And of course you don't
actually have to take an IQ test to become a reporter."
67

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Overall, these portrayals are similar to those established in other crime and mystery
narratives. A number of the appearances of journalists in the novel conform to the stereotype of
the anonymous, obstructionist journalist:
By the time I got there the crowd was three deep around the barrier, and most of
them were reporters. It is always hard work to push through a crowd of reporters
with the scent of blood in their nostrils. You might not think so, since on camera
they appear to be brain-damaged wimps with severe eating disorders. But put
them at a police barricade and a miraculous thing happens. They become strong,
aggressive, willing and able to shove anything and anyone out of the way and
trample them underfoot.
68

This image conforms to the same conventions seen in television crime dramas such as
Law and Order and Bones, with reporters displaying obnoxious behavior in pursuit of a
sensationalized headline. As Saltzman states about the anonymous journalist in Frank
Capra and the Image of the Journalist in American Film, "They poke their cameras into
people's faces, yell out questions, recklessly pursue popular actors – the kind that used to
play journalists once cheered by audiences. The result of this particularly offensive
image of the reporter from the 1970s to the new century is the public's rejection of the
reporter as hero, as someone helpful and necessary to society."
69

While journalists in Darkly Dreaming Dexter are not as manipulative as those that
appear in other crime narratives, they are portrayed as sensationalists with little regard for
facts. As Dexter observes of the discovery of a new murder, "The early-morning TV
shows spent a full ninety seconds on the shocking discovery of the shattered body.
Channel 7 had the best adjectives. But nobody knew any more than the paper. They
radiated outrage and a grim sense of disaster that even carried over into the weather
forecast, but I'm sure a large part of it was caused by the lack of pictures."
70
In the
television series Bones, police often deal with inaccurate or sensationalist reports from
journalists as well: "One of the recurring themes of the show is that journalists are too
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eager to report on a case and because of that eagerness, get facts wrong."
71
In one case in
the show, journalists report that a car explosion was in fact a suicide bomb, complicating
the investigation for the main characters.
Journalists in Dexter are not quite as manipulative as those that appear in other
narratives, but they are routinely exploited by other characters in the police department
looking to score political points, similar to how journalists are manipulated in the Law
and Order series. Captain Matthews's appearances are often in front of reporters'
microphones, and Detective LaGuerta similarly tries to stage interactions with the press
to promote her own image.
72

II. Negative Portrayals as a Tool for Characterization:
All of the portrayals are presented, as in the rest of the novel, entirely through the
perspective of the main character Dexter, a serial killer who openly admits to being a sociopath,
albeit a highly perceptive one. To understand the meaning of the negative depictions of
journalists, Dexter's mental state as characterized by Lindsay must be considered. Dexter has a
highly negative view of journalists, criticizing them for being wholly unlike film portrayals of
heroic investigators: "Even so, I always hope for just the smallest glimmer. And I'm always
disappointed. Perhaps I saw too many black-and-white movies as a child. I still thought the
cynical, world-weary drunk from the large metropolitan daily was supposed to ask an awkward
question and force the investigators to carefully reexamine the evidence. But sadly, life does not
always imitate art."
73
One could conclude that Dexter's sociopathic characteristics (which in
some cases include Dexter questioning his own sanity) would make him an unreliable narrator,
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and thus render all his observations biased regarding journalists and the rest of society. But
Dexter is not a typical serial killer whose perception of reality readers are meant to disregard.
As a psychopathic character, an outsider looking in on the rest of society, Dexter has
what is portrayed as a uniquely frank perception of people and their behavior, one that engenders
trust from the reader. Despite a few difficulties navigating romantic and familial relationships,
Dexter, through his efforts to hide his true nature and "appear human," is portrayed as having
arguably the best understanding of human behavior of any character in the novel.
Lindsay's characterization of Dexter as a psychopath could provide an explanation for
why portrayals of journalists in the novel are so harsh and sometimes vitriolic. In an article
analyzing the mindset of the real-world Columbine shooters, Dave Cullen observes how
psychologists determined Eric Harris expressed a number of hateful messages about the world in
his diaries:
But Fuselier recognized a far more revealing emotion bursting through, both
fueling and overshadowing the hate. What the boy was really expressing was
contempt. He is disgusted with the morons around him. These are not the rantings
of an angry young man, picked on by jocks until he's not going to take it anymore.
These are the rantings of someone with a messianic-grade superiority complex,
out to punish the entire human race for its appalling inferiority. It may look like
hate, but "It's more about demeaning other people," says Hare.
74

Dexter, like a real psychopath, demonstrates a similar sense of superiority, especially in the case
of investigation and mystery-solving. As the outsider looking in and the only one who really
understands other killers (besides those other killers themselves), Dexter often observes other
detectives as inept. In one conversation with Detective LaGuerta this comes to the surface:
"'You must think I'm stupid,' she said. And of course that thought had crossed my mind
fleetingly once or twice, but it didn't seem politic to say so."
75
Those who do not have the same
perceptiveness of murder and violence as him, such as detectives and journalists, are the targets
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34

of his verbal scorn. Dexter's moral code prevents him from translating this disdain into violence,
but his opinion of them as inferior is harsh nonetheless. In this way, the crime and mystery
conventions of journalists as obstructive sensationalists are used to demonstrate Dexter's
contempt of people as a psychopath, which offers some explanation for why the criticisms of the
media are so vitriolic and harsh.
This extremely cynical perception of the media may not be entirely indicative of
Lindsay's own views, though, as he himself once hosted a public television program discussing
"press coverage, racial and gender bias in reporting" and has stated in interviews that in creating
the character Dexter, he was exploiting his acting background in order to create a character very
different from himself.
76

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35

Conclusion
Dexter demonstrates a complex treatment of the image of the journalist. The show uses a
number of conventions from crime and serial killer dramas to create a series that both parodies
and utilizes those genres. Within this context, portrayals of reporters and news media are
necessarily complex. While some instances show journalists as obstructionist and mercenary,
others portray them as potential tools for the heroic police. The generic media in Dexter is more
of a social force of nature for the police to harness or avoid rather than a destructive societal ill
as portrayed in other crime dramas. As Dexter focuses on homicide and crime, the series's
portrayals also show surprising resemblances to real crime reporting, with instances of news
coverage, intended or not, appearing consistent with real-world patterns.
The character of Christine Hill also presents a complex image of a journalist, one that is
highly sympathetic in the context of her reporting, but also antagonistic through her role as
another of many killers in the series. Her portrayal makes use of recognizable conventions to
ground her in the audience's minds and also plays with those conventions to reveal her as more
than she seems. Hill embodies a number of conventions surrounding the female journalist who
struggles to balance her career and personal life and leverages her sexuality to get ahead, but her
role as an antagonist calls into question many of the same actions that seemed to characterize her
as a reporter. More conventional portrayals of female journalists facing such romantic and
professional conflicts often are problematic at best; they portray reporters as willing to
compromise their ethical duties either for a scoop or a romantic relationship, but they also
particularly damage the image of professional women by implying they are so beholden to their
emotions that they are incapable of properly performing their jobs. Hill's character is guilty of
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playing into some of these conventions, but her nuances and complexity allow her to sidestep
being an overtly negative portrayal of a female journalist.
In comparison, Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay contains highly negative
portrayals of journalists as inept sensationalists, playing on conventional images of the
anonymous journalists. These portrayals serve to characterize the superiority complex of the
psychopathic main character, Dexter, as his contempt for them originates from his perception
that reporters are terrible investigators.
Most of the differences between the novel and series in their portrayals of journalists are
due to the differing formats and mediums. The novel is written in first person and thus all
observations of news media are offered exclusively by Dexter, while the multi-storyline
approach of the show lends itself to a police procedural format with mostly conventional
portrayals of reporters.
A reader of Darkly Dreaming Dexter could be forgiven for thinking that Lindsay had a
grudge against journalists, considering the vitriol his character Dexter directs toward them. A
closer analysis of Dexter's psychopathic mindset, however, reveals the negative portrayal of
media as an element of his view of an inept investigative system. A reader who understands this
could come away with more of an insight into a serial killer's mind rather than a diminished
opinion of journalists. Portrayals in Showtime's Dexter play into some fairly typical crime
drama conventions, but usually only function as a sort of shorthand to express public pressure
placed on the police, rather than as a depiction of a purely negative and self-serving group. The
audience receives a more balanced image of the media in the show than seen in most other crime
dramas. Christine Hill adds further complexity to the show's treatment of journalism as well;
while a viewer would recognize a number of conventions surrounding a female reporter, their
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expectations are challenged in the end and the product is a character whose flaws and actions are
not solely defined by her profession.

1
Shona Hill, and Shilinka Smith. "Fearful Irony: The Case of Being Dexter(ous)." In The Many Forms of Fear, Horror
and Terror, Leanne Franklin and Ravenel Richardson, 93-102. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2009.
2
Jasmin Teuteberg. America's Favourite Serial Killer: The Creation of Sympathy in the Perception of Criminals in
Television Crime Narratives - Exemplified by the Series »Dexter«. Norderstedt, Germany: GRIN Verlag, 2009.
3
Dexter, Season 1. Episodes 2, 3, 4, 12. 2006. Showtime. (See Appendix I)
4
Dexter, Season 1. Episodes 1, 11. 2006. Showtime. (See Appendix I)
5
Alessandra Stanley. "He Kills People and Cuts Them Up. But They Deserve It. Besides, He’s Neat." The New York
Times, September 29, 2006.
6
J. M. Tyree. "Spatter Pattern." Film Quarterly, Vol. 62, No. 1 (2008): Page 82.
7
Isabel Santaularia. "Dexter: Villain, Hero or Simply a Man? The Perpetuation of Traditional Masculinity in Dexter."
Journal of the Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies. 32.2 (December 2010), Pages 58-59.
8
Ibid, Page 59.
9
Teuteberg, America's Favourite Serial Killer, Page 19.
10
Dexter, Season 1. Episodes 3,4. 2006. Showtime. (See Appendix I)
11
Santaularia, "Dexter: Villain, Hero or Simply a Man?," Page 58. "The popularity of psycho-horror – as well as of
the other two subgenres that comprise serial killer fiction (the serial killer thriller and the slasher) – bespeaks
American (and Western) audiences's interest in the serial killer phenomenon in a context in which the 'convening
of the public around scenes of violence … has come to make up a wound culture: the public fascination with torn
and open bodies and torn and opened persons.'"
12
Caley K. Cook. "Law & Disorder: The Image of the Journalist in Television’s Law & Order Series." University of
Southern California, Unpublished Master's Thesis (2006), Page 7. http://www.ijpc.org
13
Alexandria Yeager "Digging Up Dirt and Reporting Lies: The Image of the Journalist in the Television Series
Bones" University of Southern California, Academic Paper (2011) Page 6. http://www.ijpc.org
14
Ibid, Pages 8-9.
15
Dexter, Season 2. Episode 3. 2007. Showtime. (See Appendix I)
16
Yeager, "Digging Up Dirt," Pages 17-18.
17
Dexter, Season 1. Episode 11. 2006. Showtime. (See Appendix I)
18
Joe Saltzman, Frank Capra and the Image of the Journalist in American Film, Los Angeles, California: The Norman
Lear Center, (2002) Page 147.
19
Cook, "Law and Disorder," Page 21.
20
Yeager, "Digging Up Dirt," Page 13.
21
Brian Holcomb, "The Wire: Season Five," Slate Magazine, January 21, 2008.
22
Dexter, Season 1. Episode 3. 2006. Showtime. (See Appendix I)
23
Dexter, Season 2. Episode 7. 2007. Showtime. (See Appendix I)
24
Ibid.
25
Cook, "Law and Disorder," Page 8.
26
Dexter, Season 2. Episode 6. 2007. Showtime. (See Appendix I)
27
Dexter, Season 4. Episode 5. 2009. Showtime. (See Appendix I)
28
Alan Sepinwall, The Revolution Was Televised: The Cops, Crooks, Slingers and Slayers Who Changed TV Drama
Forever, Self-Published (2012) Kindle Edition, Page 93.
29
Sophie Fuggle, "Short Circuiting the Power Grid: The Wire as Critique of Institutional Power," Darkmatter, May
29, 2009. http://www.darkmatter101.org/site/2009/05/29/short-circuiting-the-power-grid-the-wire-as-critique-
of-institutional-power/
30
Judd Franklin, "Common Ground: The Political Economy of The Wire," Darkmatter, May 29, 2009.
http://www.darkmatter101.org/site/2009/05/29/common-ground-the-political-economy-of-the-wire/
Shea Huffman
38

31
Jason Mittell, Genre and Television: From Cop Shows to Cartoons in American Culture, New York, New York:
Routledge, (2004) Page 131 and Page 145.
32
Mittell, Genre and Television, Page 145.
33
Cook, "Law and Disorder," Page 15.
34
Ibid, Page 17.
35
Dexter, Season 3. Episode 3. 2008. Showtime. (See Appendix I)
36
James Garafalo. "NCCD Research Review : Crime and the Mass Media: a Selective Review of Research." Journal
of Research in Crime and Delinquency (1981) 18. Page 319.
37
Ibid, Page 323.
38
Dexter, Season 1. Episode 1. 2006. Showtime.
39
Ibid, Episodes 3, 4, 8, 10, 11, 12. (See Appendix I)
40
Garafalo, "Crime and the Mass Media," Page 323.
41
Dexter, Season 2. Episode 4. 2007. Showtime. (See Appendix I)
42
Grant Duwe. "Body-Count Journalism : The Presentation of Mass Murder in the News Media." Homicide
Studies (2000) Page 367.
43
Michael D. Ayers. "Courtney Ford on Joining 'Dexter' and the Role of Reporters in Crime Investigations." The
Huffington Post, November 22, 2009. http://www.aoltv.com/2009/11/22/courtney-ford-interview-dexter/.
44
Ibid.
45
Dexter, Season 4. Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4. 2009. Showtime. (See Appendix I)
46
Cook, "Law and Disorder," Page 7.
47
Ibid, Page 10.
48
Ibid, Page 9.
49
Joe Saltzman. "Sob Sisters: The Image Of The Female Journalist In Popular Culture," University of Southern
California, Introductory Essay (2003), Page 5. http://www.ijpc.org
50
Howard Good. Girl Reporter: Gender, Journalism, and the Movies. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press Inc.,
1998, Page 12. "Then again, the dictionary defines 'torchy' as 'pertaining to or characteristic of a torch song or a
torch singer.' It defines 'torch song' as 'a popular song concerned with unhappiness or failure in love,' usually sung
by a woman."
51
Ibid, Page 12.
52
Sara Libby. "Why Are Girl Journalists in Movies So Lame?" Double X, January 27, 2010.
http://www.doublex.com/section/arts/why-are-girl-journalists-movies-so-lame?page=0,0
53
Jessica Strait, "Popular Portrayals of Journalists and their Personal Lives: Finding the Balance between Love and
the 'Scoop,'" Washington and Lee University, Academic Paper (2011) Page 13. http://www.ijpc.org
54
Sarah Herman, "Hacks, Heels and Hollywood: How Accurately Do Recent Film Portrayals of Women Journalists
Reflect the Working World of Their Real-Life Counterparts," Bournemouth University, Undergraduate Dissertation
(2005) Page 28. http://www.ijpc.org
55
Some examples include romantic films like Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Never Been Kissed (1999), and Letters to
Juliet (2010), which center around or at least involve female journalists falling in love with subjects or sources.
56
Libby, "Why Are Girl Journalists in Movies So Lame?" – Libby also lists films like Three Kings and Absence of
Malice, as examples of portrayals of female reporters committing breaches of ethics, sometimes extremely
seriously, when they fail to avoid romantic relationships with sources. Even the lauded All The President's Men,
she points out, contains an instance of a female reporter abusing a relationship to obtain information.
57
Libby, "Why Are Girl Journalists in Movies So Lame?"
58
Dexter, Season 4. Episodes 2, 5. 2009. Showtime. (See Appendix I)
59
Dexter, Season 4. Episodes 6, 8. 2009. Showtime. (See Appendix I)
60
Alexa Milan, "Modern Portrayals of Journalism in Film," The Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in
Communication, Vol. 1, No. 1, (Winter 2010). Page 53.
61
Ibid, Page 53.
Shea Huffman
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62
Jason Hughes. "Parks and Recreation: The Reporter," AOL TV, April 24, 2009.
http://www.aoltv.com/2009/04/24/parks-and-recreation-the-reporter/
63
Good, Girl Reporter, Page 13.
64
Ibid, Page 13.
65
Ibid, Page 17.
66
Santaularia. "Dexter: Villain, Hero or Simply a Man?," Page 59.
67
Jeff Lindsay, Darkly Dreaming Dexter, New York, New York: Random House, 2004, Page 113. (See Appendix II)
68
Lindsay, Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Pages 182-183.
69
Saltzman, Frank Capra, Page 181.
70
Lindsay, Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Page 164.
71
Yeager, "Digging Up Dirt," Page 4.
72
Lindsay, Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Pages 192-196. (See Appendix II)
73
Ibid, Page 113.
74
Dave Cullen. "The Depressive and the Psychopath: At last we know why the Columbine killers did it." Slate, April
20, 2004.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/assessment/2004/04/the_depressive_and_the_psychopath.sing
le.html
75
Lindsay, Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Page 243.
76
Ali Karim. "Darkly Dreaming Dexter: JEFF LINDSAY Interview," Shots: Crime and Thriller Ezine, September 30,
2004. http://www.shotsmag.co.uk/interview_view.aspx?interview_id=69
Shea Huffman
39
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Ayers, Michael D. "Courtney Ford on Joining 'Dexter' and the Role of Reporters in Crime
Investigations." The Huffington Post, November 22, 2009.
http://www.aoltv.com/2009/11/22/courtney-ford-interview-dexter/.
Cook, Caley K. "Law & Disorder: The Image of the Journalist in Television’s Law & Order
Series." University of Southern California, Unpublished Master's Thesis (2006)
http://www.ijpc.org
Cullen, Dave. "The Depressive and the Psychopath: At last we know why the Columbine killers
did it." Slate, April 20, 2004.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/assessment/2004/04/the_depressive_and
_the_psychopath.single.html
DePaulo, Bella. ed. The Psychology of Dexter. Dallas: BenBella Books, 2010.
Dexter, Season 1. 2006. Showtime. DVD
Dexter, Season 2. 2007. Showtime. DVD
Dexter, Season 3. 2008. Showtime. DVD
Dexter, Season 4. 2009. Showtime. DVD
Duwe, Grant. "Body-Count Journalism: The Presentation of Mass Murder in the News
Media." Homicide Studies (2000): 364-399. http://hsx.sagepub.com/content/4/4/364 .
Force, William R. "The Code of Harry: Performing normativity in Dexter." Crime Media Culture
(2010): 330-345. http://cmc.sagepub.com/content/6/3/329
Judd, Franklin. "Common Ground: The Political Economy of The Wire," Darkmatter, May 29,
2009. http://www.darkmatter101.org/site/2009/05/29/common-ground-the-political-
economy-of-the-wire/
Fuggle, Sophie. "Short Circuiting the Power Grid: The Wire as Critique of Institutional Power,"
Darkmatter, May 29, 2009. http://www.darkmatter101.org/site/2009/05/29/short-
circuiting-the-power-grid-the-wire-as-critique-of-institutional-power/
Garafalo, James. "NCCD Research Review: Crime and the Mass Media: a Selective Review of
Research." Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency (1981) 18: 319.
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Good, Howard. Girl Reporter: Gender, Journalism, and the Movies. Lanham, Maryland:
Scarecrow Press Inc., 1998.
Herman, Sarah. "Hacks, Heels and Hollywood: How Accurately Do Recent Film Portrayals of
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http://www.ijpc.org
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Hill, Shona. and Shilinka Smith, "Fearful Irony: The Case of Being Dexter(ous)." In The Many
Forms of Fear, Horror and Terror, Leanne Franklin and Ravenel Richardson, 93-102.
Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2009.
Holcomb, Brian. "The Wire: Season Five," Slate Magazine, January 21, 2008.
Hughes, Jason. "Parks and Recreation: The Reporter," AOL TV, April 24, 2009.
http://www.aoltv.com/2009/04/24/parks-and-recreation-the-reporter/
Internet Movie Database. “Dexter.” http://www.imdb.com, 2012.
Karim, Ali. "Darkly Dreaming Dexter: JEFF LINDSAY Interview." Shots: Crime and Thriller
Ezine. September 30, 2004.
http://www.shotsmag.co.uk/interview_view.aspx?interview_id=69
Libby, Sara. "Why Are Girl Journalists in Movies So Lame?" Double X, January 27, 2010.
http://www.doublex.com/section/arts/why-are-girl-journalists-movies-so-lame?page=0,0
Lindsay, Jeff. Darkly Dreaming Dexter. New York, New York: Random House, 2004.
Milan, Alexa. "Modern Portrayals of Journalism in Film." The Elon Journal of Undergraduate
Research in Communciations, Vol. 1, No. 1, (Winter 2010). 46-57.
http://ijpc.org/uploads/files/alexa%20milan%20modern%20portrayals%20of%20journali
sm%20in%20film.pdf
Mittell, Jason. Genre and Television: From Cop Shows to Cartoons in American Culture, New
York, New York: Routledge, 2004.
Saltzman, Joe. Frank Capra and the Image of the Journalist in American Film. Los Angeles,
California: The Norman Lear Center, 2002.
Saltzman, Joe. "Sob Sisters: The Image of the Female Journalist in Popular Culture." University
of Southern California, Introductory Essay (2003). http://www.ijpc.org
Santaularia, Isabel. "Dexter: Villain, Hero or Simply a Man? The Perpetuation of Traditional
Masculinity in Dexter." Journal of the Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies.
32.2 (December 2010), 57–71.
Sepinwall, Alan. The Revolution Was Televised: The Cops, Crooks, Slingers and Slayers Who
Changed TV Drama Forever. Self-Published, 2012. Kindle Edition, Page 93.
Stanley, Alessandra. "He Kills People and Cuts Them Up. But They Deserve It. Besides, He’s
Neat." The New York Times, September 29, 2006.
Strait, Jessica. "Popular Portrayals of Journalists and Their Personal Lives: Finding the Balance
between Love and the 'Scoop.'" Washington and Lee University, Academic Paper (2011).
http://www.ijpc.org
Sternbergh, Adam. "A Killer Role." New York Magazine, September 24, 2006
http://nymag.com/arts/tv/reviews/21657/.
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42

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Perception of Criminals in Television Crime Narratives – Exemplified by the Series
»Dexter«. Norderstedt, Germany: GRIN Verlag, 2009.
Tyree, J. M., "Spatter Pattern." Film Quarterly, Vol. 62, No. 1 (2008): 82-85.
Yeager, Alexandria. "Digging Up Dirt And Reporting Lies: The Image of the Journalist in the
Television Series Bones." University of Southern California, Academic Paper (2011)
Page 6. http://www.ijpc.org

Shea Huffman
43

Appendix I: Journalist Appearance Summary in the Showtime Series Dexter:
Season 1
Episode One
13:30: Unnamed television news media interviewing Lt. LaGuerta (Lauren Vélez) at crime scene.
LaGuerta's furtive look at Dexter (Michael C. Hall) implies she thinks she can afford to be
distracted from the interview.
Episode Two
38:22: Television news report about economics, switched off mid-report by Rita (Julie Benz)
while sitting with Dexter. Background noise.
Episode Three
5:52: Television news report about murder case, watched by Dexter while researching a possible
target for killing. Typical reporting style, used for plot exposition.
36:05: Deputy Chief Thomas Mathews (Geoff Pierson), speaking to Lt. LaGuerta about her
resistance to promoting Debra Morgan to detective, says, "You were a middle of the pack
detective before the press got a hold of you." Speaks to perception that news media have a
tendency to sensationalize news and seek out heroes, deserving or not.
36:40: Television news report with anchor speaking about manhunt being conducted by Miami
PD, with scenes of LaGuerta at a press conference. Debra Morgan is noticeably upset, believing
LaGuerta has the wrong suspect and is using the press attention to improve her political image.
Episode Four
8:20: Television news report with anchor speaking about manhunt mentioned. Background
chatter that establishes the case has public attention.
Episode Eight
Throughout episode: Suspect in Ice Truck Killer case requests to meet with a reporter, to exploit
press'ss desire to sensationalize and focus on macabre in order to become famous. He realizes,
however, that the reporter is a police officer in disguise.
Episode Ten
47:25 Television news media at press conference where LaGuerta announces the re-opening of
the Ice Truck Killer Case, defying the wishes of Mathews. Reporters ask questions. Example of
media being used for political purposes.
Episode Eleven
16:24: News media at the scene of high-profile crime. Small hindrance to police officials
crossing police line.
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18:29: News media at same crime scene, questioning Mathews who deflects their questions.
Episode Twelve
24:55: Television news report about Ice Truck Killer Case.
54:00: Television news media in background, preparing to shoot.
Season 2
Episode Two
17:30: Dexter watches television news report of the discovery of his victims.
Episode Three
7:18: Television news reporter questioning Lt. Esme Pasquale (Judith Scott) about Bay Harbor
Butcher victims as she leaves the police station. Pasquale fumbles through the questions, though
the reporter is portrayed as intrusive.
Episode Four
45:50: Television news reporter/pundit speaks favorably of Bay Harbor Butcher's perceived
vigilante actions. Typical image of opinion news programming, with a sensationalist spin.
Episode Six
28:32: Police leak information to media in order to help catch a copycat killer.
Episode Seven
22:15: Dexter sends a fake manifesto to Miami newspapers in order to confuse FBI investigators.
Police order an injunction to stop publishing of the manifesto, to stave off a "media frenzy."
43:21: FBI agent meets with Miami Tribune, and offers to lift the injunction if the journalists
publish the manifesto without victims's names and in less-prominent placement in the paper.
Publishers are portrayed as resistant to police interference, and implied to be more concerned
about selling papers than the murder investigation.
Episode Nine
44:27: LaGuerta is concerned about the possibility of Doakes's name being released to the press,
and the damage to his reputation.
Season 3
Episode One
30:10: Assistant District Attorney Miguel Prado (Jimmy Smits) speaks at a press conference
about his brother's murder. Media are not directly observed.
Episode Two
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29:19: Prado speaks at an impromptu press conference outside a courtroom about a case he just
won. Example of anonymous crowd of journalists surrounding at crime scenes or court houses.
30:09: Defense Attorney Ellen Wolf (Anne Ramesy) speaks to the same reporters. Her remarks
are highly political, attacking Prado.
Episode Seven
50:41: Television news shown momentarily, no audio.
Season 4
Episode One
18:00: Christine Hill (Courtney Ford), newspaper reporter. First appearance, questioning Det.
Quinn at crime scene - Aggressive reporting, portrayed as intrusive and morally questionable by
crossing police line without hesitation and making inferences to lead detective and obtain case
information. Exploits detective's advances by accepting his personal phone number.
41:40: Christine Hill. Second appearance. Happy about front page story as a result of Det.
Quinn's information. Presses him for more information. Quinn hesitant to speak except off-the-
record. Further exploiting of Quinn's advances/making advances of her own by setting up a date.
Episode Two
18:14: Hill meets with Quinn at a crime scene, crossing the police line without hesitation. Quinn
is angry at her for using information about the "Vacation Murders" he told her in confidence
during their romantic involvement. Both of them want to continue the relationship, however,
and both seem sincere.
Episode 03
36:00: Hill meets with Quinn in the police station, and while their interaction seems personal,
Hill presses for more information about the Vacation Murders and other cases, with Quinn
resisting. Quinn warns Hill that putting a negative spin on another story would make him angry.
Both press and police attempt to manipulate the other in this situation, despite their romantic
involvement.
44:00: While Hill and Quinn are physically intimate in his apartment, Quinn discloses privileged
information about Agent Lundy's belief that a falling death is connected to other serial murders.
Hill uses this information in the next episode in a story, causing a conflict between she and
Quinn.
Episode Four
11:00: Hill's story using Quinn's information is published, shedding a negative light on the
department for high costs of the Vacation Murders investigation, and revealing Lundy's
investigation of the Trinity Murders in Miami.
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27:00: Det. Morgan is angry at how Quinn's relationship compromised her investigation with
Lundy. Quinn meets with Hill and tells her he has lost trust in her, and says he is ending the
relationship.
Episode Five
6:30: Hill appears at the scene of Debora's and Lundy's shooting, trying first to reconcile with
Quinn. She later tries to get information from Batista, but he is at first resistant. After Hill
questions about involvement of the Vacation Murderers, Batista goes on the record falsely
stating one of the suspects (romantically involved with the other) has syphilis. Hill seems to
know this is false, but agrees to run the story anyway, complicit with the police's plan to lure out
the criminals.
17:00: Batista discusses with other police his planting a false story with Hill. They no longer
seem to view Quinn's relationship negatively, as they have turned it to their advantage.
23:00: After having sex, Quinn and Hill reestablish their relationship, but acknowledge the
complications that will arise between their professions.
Episode Six
19:00: While in Quinn's apartment, Hill mentions her editor wants more information about the
Vacation Murders, and asks if Quinn could help her get an interview with Debra Morgan, but he
resists.
Episode Seven
9:50: Dexter notices Hill trying to get Debra to agree to an interview, and stops Hill from
proceeding. He is confrontational and tells Hill to "back off." Quinn defends her, but Dexter is
unconvinced, and threatens to blackmail Quinn.
Episode 08
27:30: Hill comes to Quinn distressed that she may lose her job, saying her editor will fire her if
she does not get a, "lead that bleeds." Quinn offers emotional support, will not provide
information about homicides. Desperate, Hill peeks at a pamphlet containing information about
DNA swabbing, and correctly deduces that the police have a sweep planned. Hill declines an
invitation to spend the night with Quinn, presumably to work on her new lead.
36:20: Hill confronts Debra about the DNA sweeps. Debra is resistant, but Hill continues to
push. Debra says she knows how tough being a reporter at the time (set in 2009) must be, and
instead offers her interview about her and Lundy's shooting.
Episode Nine
14:10: Arthur Mitchell (John Lithgow), reads Hill's article about a murder he committed, and
seems distressed. There is a focus on Hill's byline.
17:00: Hill arrives at the police station to greet Quinn. She speaks to Debra, who wants to put
off their interview, but Hill
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50:10: Arthur Mitchell arrives at Hill's apartment, and she greets him as her father. While not
explicitly related to journalism, this revelation provides insight into her previous motivations and
actions as Mitchell's daughter.
Episode Ten
19:10: Debra and Hill finally meet to conduct their interview, but Debra is doing so because she
believes Hill may have information about her and Lundy's shooting. Hill says she promises to
make Debra look good in the story.
22:40: Hill conducts her interview, but Debra confronts her about Lundy's death, making her
uncomfortable and eager to end the interview she had previously fought so hard to get. Debra
further questions her about how fast she arrived at the scene of the shooting. She and Batista are
convinced of her involvement in the shooting.
29:00: Hill tries to contact her father for help, but he is unsympathetic.
38:50: Hill fights with Quinn, questioning him about what Debra might have told him. She says
she has to give up on her story because Debra gave her a bad interview.
39:30: Hill continues to try to contact her father, unsuccessfully.
47:00: Hill finally meets with her father, and reveals that she has known about his serial murders
and has used her position as a reporter to infiltrate the Miami Police's homicide department after
recognizing his murder pattern in the city. She reveals that she followed Lundy and killed him
when she believed he was getting close to exposing Arthur, out of her sense of loyalty to him.
53:20: Hill is arrested.
Episode Eleven
07:30: Hill is interrogated, but resists providing information. The police are unconvinced.
15:05: Debra and Batista determine from postcards in Hill's apartment that she is the daughter of
the Trinity Killer.
17:40: Batista confronts Hill with his evidence, and threatens that Quinn will be angry when he
finds out she used their relationship for information on her father.
24:00: Debra attempts her own interrogation, trying to relate her own issues with her father to
Hill's, but she is unsuccessful.
31:00: The police release Hill, and she calls her father for help, but he dismisses her.
37:00: Television news interview with Batista reveals Dexter successfully led the police to the
wrong suspect in the Trinity Killer case, relaxing the pressure on Arthur Mitchell.
37:10: Hill calls her father again for help, saying all her actions were a result of her love for him,
but he harshly rejects her in light of the police investigation.
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39:42: Debra meets with Hill to convince her to reveal the location of her father. Hill is
distraught after her father rejects her, and confesses to shooting Debra and Lundy, and then
shoots herself.

Appendix II: Significant Journalist Appearances or References in the novel Darkly
Dreaming Dexter:
Page 28: “I can see that,” I said. “Have you caught the killer yet?” She snorted. “You sound like
a reporter. Those assholes will be all over me in another hour.” “What will you tell them?” She
looked at the bags of body parts and frowned. Not because the sight bothered her. She was
seeing her career, trying to phrase her statement to the press. “It is only a matter of time before
the killer makes a mistake and we catch him—” “Meaning,” I said, “that so far he hasn't made
any mistakes, you don't have any clues, and you have to wait for him to kill again before you can
do anything?”
Page 29: “Detective,” said a voice behind us. Captain Matthews strolled up in a cloud of Aramis
aftershave, meaning that the reporters would be here very shortly.
Pages 29-30: His eyes glazed and refocused on something on the other end of the parking lot. I
looked. The Channel 7 News van was rolling in. “Excuse me,” Matthews said.
Page 30: As I rejoined Deb, Matthews was shaking hands with Jerry Gonzalez from Channel 7.
Jerry was the Miami area's leading champion of if-it-bleeds-it-leads journalism. My kind of guy.
He was going to be disappointed this time.
Page 32: The important thing here is to keep the press from getting hysterical.” She shook her
head slowly, as if in disbelief, and looked up. “Considering what you can do with gravity, that
should be easy.” And she winked at me and strolled off, over toward the perimeter, where
Captain Matthews was talking with great dignity to Jerry Gonzalez from Channel 7.
Page 34: Around lunchtime the story broke national. The lid was coming off the hooker murders
after the “grisly discovery” at the Cacique Motel. Channel 7 had done a masterful job of
presenting all the hysterical horror of body parts in a Dumpster without actually saying anything
about them. As Detective LaGuerta had shrewdly observed, these were only hookers; but once
public pressure started to rise from the media, they might as well be senator's daughters. And so
the department began to gear up for a long spell of defensive maneuvering, knowing exactly
what kind of heartrending twaddle would be coming from the brave and fearless foot soldiers of
the fifth estate.
Page 43: I inched along placidly, listening to the radio. Apparently the police were hot on the
trail of the Tamiami Butcher. There were no specifics available, but Captain Matthews got a
lovely sound bite. He made it seem like he would personally make the arrest as soon as he
finished his coffee.
Page 60: And it never occurred to me before that there could be anything at all political about
murder.” “Practically everything,” I said.
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Page 72: LaGuerta briefed the information officers on what they could and could not release to
the press. Things they could release included a new glossy photo of LaGuerta she'd made up for
the occasion. It was serious and yet glamorous; intense but refined. You could almost see her
making lieutenant in that picture. If only Deborah had that kind of PR smarts.
Page 113: The press ate it up. You couldn't really blame them, I suppose. LaGuerta did a
masterful job of presenting just enough fact colored with high-gloss wishful thinking that nearly
anyone would have been convinced. And of course you don't actually have to take an IQ test to
become a reporter. Even so, I always hope for just the smallest glimmer. And I'm always
disappointed. Perhaps I saw too many black-and-white movies as a child. I still thought the
cynical, world-weary drunk from the large metropolitan daily was supposed to ask an awkward
question and force the investigators to carefully reexamine the evidence. But sadly, life does not
always imitate art. And at LaGuerta's press conference, the part of Spencer Tracy was played by
a series of male and female models with perfect hair and tropical-weight suits. Their penetrating
questions amounted to, “How did it feel to find the head?” and “Can we have some pictures?”
One lone reporter, Nick Something from the local NBC TV affiliate, asked LaGuerta if she was
sure McHale was the killer. But when she said that the overwhelming preponderance of evidence
indicated that this was the case and anyway the confession was conclusive, he let it go. Either he
was satisfied or the words were too big.
Page 115: He was probably watching the press conference on Channel 7, the channel of choice
for people with an eye for carnage.
Page 162: Really, now: If you can't get me my newspaper on time, how can you expect me to
refrain from killing people? No paper; no matter. Press coverage of my adventures had never
been terribly interesting to me. And Harry had warned me about the idiocy of keeping any kind
of scrapbook. He didn't need to; I rarely even glanced at the reviews of my performances.
Page 163: Whatever else one can say about journalists—and there is a very great deal, almost an
encyclopedia—they are very rarely troubled by memory. The same paper that had so recently
trumpeted COPS CORRAL KILLER now screamed ICE MAN'S STORY MELTS! It was a long
and lovely piece, very dramatically written, detailing the discovery of a badly abused body at a
construction site just off Old Cutler Road. “A Metro Miami police spokesperson”—meaning
Detective LaGuerta, I was sure—said that it was much too soon to say anything with certainty,
but this was probably a copycat killing. The paper had drawn its own conclusions—another thing
they are seldom shy about—and was now wondering aloud if the distinguished gentleman in
captivity, Mr. Daryll Earl McHale, was actually, in fact, the killer. Or was the killer still at large,
as evidenced by this latest outrage upon public morality? Because, the paper carefully pointed
out, how could we believe that two such killers could possibly be on the loose at the same time?
It was very neatly reasoned, and it occurred to me that if they had spent as much energy and
mental power trying to solve the murders, the whole thing would be over by now.
Page 164: The early-morning TV shows spent a full ninety seconds on the shocking discovery of
the shattered body. Channel 7 had the best adjectives. But nobody knew any more than the paper.
They radiated outrage and a grim sense of disaster that even carried over into the weather
forecast, but I'm sure a large part of it was caused by the lack of pictures.
Shea Huffman
50

Pages 182-183: By the time I got there the crowd was three deep around the barrier, and most of
them were reporters. It is always hard work to push through a crowd of reporters with the scent
of blood in their nostrils. You might not think so, since on camera they appear to be brain-
damaged wimps with severe eating disorders. But put them at a police barricade and a
miraculous thing happens. They become strong, aggressive, willing and able to shove anything
and anyone out of the way and trample them underfoot. It's a bit like the stories about aged
mothers lifting trucks when their child is trapped underneath. The strength comes from some
mysterious place—and somehow, when there is gore on the ground, these anorexic creatures can
push their way through anything. Without mussing their hair, too. Luckily for me, one of the
uniforms at the barricade recognized me. “Let him through, folks,” he told the reporters. “Let
him through.” “Thanks, Julio,” I told the cop. “Seems like more reporters every year.” He
snorted. “Somebody must be cloning 'em. They all look the same to me.”
Pages 192-196: In this lengthy encounter, Detective LaGuerta leads reporters onto the scene of a
gruesome murder in an attempt to convince them the killings were unrelated to an earlier case
she and the press believed to be solved. The reporters are portrayed as callous and egotistical, as
well as fairly easily manipulated by the detective. When the police captain arrives, he reacts
angrily with the detective and has the reporters escorted from the room, all while they protest
that they have not had a chance to photograph or videotape the crime scene.
Page 197: Outside, Rick Sangre already had a camera rolling. Captain Matthews stood in the
wash of lights with microphones thrusting at his chin, giving his official statement. “. . . always
the policy of this department to leave the investigating officer autonomy on a case, until such
time as it becomes evident that a series of major errors in judgment call the officer's competence
into question. That time has not yet arrived, but I am monitoring the situation closely. With so
much at stake for the community—”
Page 199: Deborah gave me one of her new Worldly Cop looks, the sour one. “As far as I know,
there are more officers assigned to keeping the TV cameras out than to doing any actual work on
this thing.”
Page 211: The man from FDLE had ruled that it was Miami-Dade's investigation unless and
until tissue samples proved the body parts here and the heads down there were unrelated. In
practical and immediate terms, this meant that Captain Matthews got to have his picture taken
first by the mob of reporters already clustering outside.
Page 217: I looked out the window. Almost directly below me I could see the growing crowd of
reporters and squad cars that now surrounded the door where we had gone in with Steban.

Abstract (if available)

Abstract This paper analyzes portrayals of journalism in the Showtime series Dexter with comparisons to the show's primary source material, the novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay. The portrayals of journalists in the show mostly fit into the show's use of recognizable crime drama conventions, fulfilling the role of self-interested adversary to the police tasked with solving murders. These conventions, particularly those that apply to journalists, are the primary frame of reference for analyzing portrayals of journalism within the show. Dexter, however, is not a conventional crime drama, as the protagonist is himself a serial killer hiding in plain sight as a blood-spatter analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department. The show exploits as well as parodies many crime drama conventions to simultaneously create sympathy for the murderous Dexter and poke fun at America's morbid interest in gruesome crime scene investigation shows. ❧ While the show mostly maintains a conventional crime drama portrayal of journalists as obstructions to be overcome by the police, it does not portray them as outright enemies, instead showing them as selfish agents of the sensational media at worst, and potential allies of the police (and occasionally of Dexter himself) through either manipulation or outright cooperation at best. In fact, police often use the media as a political tool throughout the series, and reporters are depicted more as a natural part of the social system surrounding the public sphere of crime fighting. ❧ The character of newspaper reporter Christine Hill in the series's fourth season also figures prominently, as her nature as a journalist plays a significant role in the audience's perception of her character. Dexter uses conventions established around aggressive female reporters to frame Hill's complex character in a way viewers could understand, especially considering her surprise revelation as an antagonist. The character is not entirely consistent with portrayals of antagonistic journalists in other crime dramas, however, as her actions as a journalist are not uniformly negative. Her emergence as an enemy of the police is not because of any journalistic career motivations, but rather due to her own mental instability regarding her father (himself a serial killer). ❧ Depictions of journalists in Darkly Dreaming Dexter, by comparison, are almost entirely negative, mostly focusing on the image of the anonymous reporter. Since the novel is written in the first person perspective of the serial killer Dexter Morgan, the portrayals of journalists must be viewed through the prism of that character's mind, and the author's intentions in creating it. The negative portrayals of journalists are not a result of Lindsay's own views of reporters, but rather a product of his attempt to accurately capture the superiority complex inherent in the mindset of a psychopathic murderer. Lindsay plays upon the obstructionist archetype of the anonymous journalist seen in crime and mystery genres to emphasize the character Dexter's derision for those involved in professions of investigation that he views as inferior in their ability to understand the minds of killers.

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University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

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Asset Metadata

Creator Huffman, Shea (author)

Core Title Adversary for a strange hero: depictions of journalists in Showtime's Dexter with comparisons to Jeff Lindsay's novel Darkly dreaming Dexter

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Journalism (Online Journalism)

Publication Date 04/26/2013

Defense Date 04/25/2013

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Communication,crime drama,Dexter,image of the journalist in popular culture,media studies,OAI-PMH Harvest,Showtime,television

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Saltzman, Joseph (committee chair), Pryor, Lawrence (committee member), Trope, Alison (committee member)

Creator Email schuffma@usc.edu,thehunter234@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-243763

Unique identifier UC11288125

Identifier etd-HuffmanShe-1596.pdf (filename),usctheses-c3-243763 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-HuffmanShe-1596.pdf

Dmrecord 243763

Document Type Thesis

Rights Huffman, Shea

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA