University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Digital writers in an analog world: the image of the cyberjournalist in American film and television

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Digital writers in an analog world: the image of the cyberjournalist in American film and television

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Content DIGITAL WRITERS IN AN ANALOG WORLD: THE IMAGE OF THE
CYBERJOURNALIST IN AMERICAN FILM & TELEVISION
by
Jim Wayne
A Project Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(ONLINE JOURNALISM)
May 2009
Copyright 2009 Jim Wayne
ii
Table of Contents
Abstract iii
Project Description: Summary 1
Sections 3
Method and Site Mechanics 4
Hyperlinks 5
iii
Abstract
In 2009 the cyberjournalist is still a fresh and un-researched character in film
and television, where a clear image of the Internet writer has yet to take
hold. But with the Web becoming more difficult for traditional-media
platforms to ignore, that is beginning to change.
Television shows Gossip Girl and Californication feature recurring
characters with blog credentials. Internet journalist portrayals in episodes of
The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live serve as acknowledgement that the
cyberjournalist has indeed carved out a slot in popular culture, and has even
earned the esteemed honor of being satirized on SNL. Such case studies are
few and far between in 2009, but will likely multiply in the foreseeable
future.
This project, in the form of a website, examines those case studies, and also
aims to define and put into perspective the evolution of blogs and real-world
cyberjournalists.
1
Project Description
Summary
This project, The Image of the Cyberjournalist in American Film &
Television, is a multi-section multimedia website examining the portrayal of
cyberjournalist film and TV characters through a number of case studies,
each complete with links, images and video examples.
Informally known as bloggers, cyberjournalists are the thought leaders of a
new generation. They are the political pundits, financial analysts, foreign
correspondents, sports writers, technology gurus, food critics, film buffs,
music tastemakers and gossip columnists of the 21st century. And although
it took some time to catch on, but screenwriters are finally beginning to
write cyberjournalist characters into film and television scripts.
Television shows Gossip Girl and Californication feature recurring
characters with blog credentials. Internet journalist portrayals in episodes of
The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live serve as acknowledgement that the
2
cyberjournalist has indeed carved out a slot in popular culture, and has even
earned the esteemed honor of being satirized on SNL. Such case studies are
few and far between in 2009, but will likely multiply in the foreseeable
future.
To truly appreciate and understand the image of the cyberjournalist, it helps
to get to know some of the real-world personas of today's Web writers, be
they bloggers, professional reporters or simply digital diary doodlers. This
project thus begins with a brief history of the “blogosphere” and traces the
emergence of the cyberjournalist in the Web world. Extra attention is paid to
celebrity gossip bloggers, after whom the fictional cyberjournalists have
primarily been modeled (so far, anyway).
The steady maturation of the Internet has emboldened and legitimized the
Web’s stature as a news medium in popular culture. Once seen as a canvas
for the regurgitation of content from mainstream news outlets, the Internet is
increasingly recognized and respected for its original content. Professional
journalism is no longer reserved for newspaper reporters, TV anchors and
3
radio talk-show hosts. In the digital age, the cyberjournalist has joined their
ranks—competing for stories and in some fields setting the news agenda.
The nascent but rapidly developing pop-culture portrayal of the
cyberjournalist is out there, and it can be held up to the more established
images — as defined and researched in depth by Joe Saltzman and the Image
of the Journalist in Popular Culture project — of the newspaperman,
magazine columnist and TV anchor for similarities and, perhaps more
notably, differences.
Sections
The website is broken into 10 main sections of content, plus an introduction
page and a bibliography page. Seven sections are devoted to defining the
real-world cyberjournalist. They are: “History,” “Bloggers draw attention
from MSM” (examining the emergence of bloggers in traditional media),
“Blogger vs. Journalist: a perpetual debate,” “Legally speaking…”
(examining how the law differentiates between bloggers and journalists),
“Types of Bloggers,” “Types of Journalists” and “The Gossip Blogger.”
4
The final three sections are case studies of fictional portrayals of
cyberjournalists, including analyses of how those characters compare with
other pop-culture portrayals of traditional journalists. They are: “Gossip
Girl,” “Californication” and “Satire.”
Method and Site Mechanics
This website was created using HTML and CSS. All pages were hard-coded
by Jim Wayne in a text-editing program, saved as “.html” documents and
uploaded to his USC server space using an FTP client. No publishing
software (e.g. Dreamweaver) was employed in the construction or design of
the site.
Images were in some cases edited or resized using Photoshop, including the
banner image, which was created from scratch. The rotating photo gallery in
the right sidebar was created using HTML.
5
Hyperlinks
The Image of the Cyberjournalist in American Film and Television can be
viewed in its entirety online at the following URL address:
http://www-scf.usc.edu/~jamesway/

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Asset Metadata

Creator Wayne, Jim (author)

Core Title Digital writers in an analog world: the image of the cyberjournalist in American film and television

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Journalism (Online Journalism)

Publication Date 04/27/2009

Defense Date 04/01/2009

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

Tag Ana Marie Cox,bloggers,blogs,Californication,celebrity gossip,cyberjournalist,gossip blogger,gossip blogs,Gossip Girl,Huffington Post,internet language,Matt Drudge,OAI-PMH Harvest,Perez Hilton,wtf

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Saltzman, Joseph (committee chair), Durbin, Daniel (committee member), Pryor, Lawrence (committee member)

Creator Email jamesway@usc.edu,jimbwayne@hotmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-m2124

Unique identifier UC1108086

Identifier etd-Wayne-2825 (filename),usctheses-m40 (legacy collection record id),usctheses-c127-222620 (legacy record id),usctheses-m2124 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-Wayne-2825.pdf

Dmrecord 222620

Document Type Project

Rights Wayne, Jim

Type texts

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

Repository Name Libraries, University of Southern California

Repository Location Los Angeles, California

Repository Email cisadmin@lib.usc.edu