Why are journalists in domestic dramas always making trouble?

"This is the story of a trainee journalist with a junior high school degree who changed the fate of 100 million people through his investigation and reporting." Director Jia Zhangke recommended the movie "More Than Endless" he supervised on Weibo.

In the movie, the protagonist Han Dong's work unit is a newspaper. Seeing this, many people's first reaction may be that this story is estimated to be some years old.

The other side of some years is trance - in domestic film and television works, there has been no positive description of a reporter who "does not stop" for a long time. In fact, the reporter has never been absent from the popular urban drama, but the image is not so righteous.

In "Ode to Joy", they block Andy's downstairs and ask her to respond to the employee's coma due to overtime; In "The Beginning", they break into the school of "Aunt Pot" and ask the latter "if they will make your students obey traffic rules", which in turn stimulates her to become "Aunt Pot"; In "Rage", the role of the reporter is still the daughter of an official and the wife of an official, who only writes a report once in the plot, and is used as a gun...

Meng Yu, a reporter in "Crazy"

Either unrighteousness or stealth - these are two typical possibilities for journalists in film and television dramas today. Also in the recently released movie "Keep You Safe", a rumor-mongering incident that has repeatedly appeared on the hot search and contributed many explosive products to Douyin bloggers has no reporter participation throughout the process, and the beginning and end of the incident are fermented and ended in Tieba , short videos, and self-media.

Set the background of the story in "More than Endless" shortly after SARS, bringing back an image that has been absent from the screen for a long time. It also made many viewers exclaim, "It turns out that the reporter is like this."

In fact, many years ago, journalists in domestic film and television works were such an image.

Colleagues from "More Than End"

From the 90s to the early 21st century, Focus Interviews was one of the most influential news programs. The show, with the slogan "Speak with facts", has received messages from three prime ministers.

Usually, the reporters who appear in the program will follow the clues reflected by the audience to various dangerous places, and it is not uncommon for reporters to rush into the official's office with cameras to ask sharp questions, which is also the first impression of many Chinese people on "reporters".

This has also become the image of a journalist loved by domestic dramas, films and television at the beginning of the 21st century: in-depth investigation of bad incidents. Bai Ke and Zhang Songwen in "More than Endless" are also doing such things.

In the 2002 episode "The Director of the People's Congress," a newspaper reporter wrote a report entitled "Evil in the Presidential Suite," which exposed the collusion between the mayor and a local business group and helped the provincial people's congress in its anti-corruption investigation. Ouyang Tong, a reporter in the 2006 drama "Langtosha", traces a wrongful conviction six years ago, revealing the secrets of the victim, the defense lawyer, the presiding judge, and the people behind the scenes.

During the investigation, the reporters were in danger many times, and the underworld forces also tried to buy them, but none of them hindered their determination to investigate.

Wrestling with the forces of darkness eventually promoted the reform of a public event - many journalists used this image to become the heroes of the narrative "iron shoulder morality", which was respected by the authorities and the people. In 2006, the Propaganda Department of the Hainan Provincial Party Committee took the lead in filming the film "Reporter Gan Yuanzhi", which recorded the reporter's life-threatening interview on the opening of the Guangdong-Haihai Railway and the triad "Caiba" group that oppressed vegetable farmers. In real life, the reporter eventually died of a heart attack, and his wish to take his son to the north to see the snow was not fulfilled.

"Reporter Gan Yuanzhi"

But from the current point of view, the wind that generally portrayed "heroic journalists" at that time also had distinct limitations. For example, the heroic reporters in these domestic dramas are almost all men, and the "female reporter" is another painting style: white skin and beauty, and many suitors. Compared with professional life, the love life of female journalists is the main line of the story.

The title of a play summarizes the story of a female journalist during this period: "Beautiful Women Are Also Worried About Marrying".

The heroine and the deputy director of the information department prepared for the wedding, but were jealous of female colleagues who also admired the deputy director, and later she and her long-term old friend and male colleagues slowly developed a relationship... This is the main plot of the 1999 episode "Miss News". 2006's "Beautiful Women Also Worried About Marrying" invited "heartthrob" Chen Hao, who encountered her fiancé's "escaped marriage" at the beginning, and then let her "change 4 boyfriends a year", and there are few work-related parts of the plot.

The heroine reporter was selectively ignored by the film and television creators, which was a limitation and regret at the time. This is not because there is no reference object in reality, at that time, whether it was Chai Jing, who entered the hospital in protective clothing when SARS was raging, Luqiu Luwei, who went to the front line during the Iraq War, or Chen Xiaonan, who transmitted live streaming footage from the Lebanese capital during the Lebanese-Israeli conflict, all of them have attracted attention at the social level.

If you must talk about the positive side, dramas such as "Miss News" are also a kind of beautiful vision of journalists in that era: professional elite, competent work, independent and self-reliant, is one of the first "independent women" images to enter the public's vision.

Indeed, many journalists have been influenced by such a beautiful image and entered this industry. Luo Beibei, the founder of "Luo Serious", once recalled his news enlightenment work, which was "Miss News".

Only halfway through when she was a child, she found out in the rental store that "Miss News" is basically a copy of the Japanese drama "News Girl".

Instrumentalized journalists

In recent years, the number of female journalists with investigative work in domestic dramas has increased, at least in terms of number. In the two popular anti-black dramas "Sweeping Black Storm" and "Furious Rush", the female reporters who go deep into the gangs of black forces to find clues.

Huang Xi in "Sweeping Black Storm" first infiltrated the "beauty loan" and cooperated with the police to investigate this organization that issued usury to girls through medical beauty projects, and later infiltrated the nightclub run by the local underworld forces, and found many girls in the nightclub who could not afford usury and were forced to be "princesses". Meng Yu in "Crazy" has a relatively simple job, reporting on the renovation project of the old village of Mangcun, and then cooperating with the police to catch several people who buy drugs.

Huang Xi in "Black Storm"

But before "reporters", their more important identities in the plot are "beauty" and "relationship household".

Both dramas invariably make the "beauty" identity of the two reporters the key to sneaking into nightclubs to "perform tasks". They have close ties with both those who sweep away the gang and those who are swept away. Huang Xi's professional idol is her sister-in-law, who is the head of the public security bureau, who is one of the "umbrellas" to be arrested. Meng Yu's father was promoted to district party secretary, and her husband later became a "protective umbrella".

This "relationship household" identity makes the image of the reporter who goes deep into the tiger's den invisibly covered with a protective cover. It is probably difficult for the screenwriters to make up a plot in which they go deep into the underworld forces and then retreat all over. They are thus "instrumentalized", and the identity of the reporter can not only "play auxiliary" well, provide some clues for the heroic protagonist, but also rely on the strong emotional link of the "relationship household" to connect the story.

But such an identity is difficult to resonate with the audience. The status of "relationship households" makes their attitude of moving forward at work look naïve and reckless, and they also have to shoulder the heavy responsibility of the few "emotional dramas" in the anti-black drama, and in the emotional heating up of the protagonist's "no fight and no acquaintance", they also have to do many behaviors that the audience seems to be very "troublesome". Therefore, in these two dramas, the roles of these two female journalists are among the worst characters.

This "instrumentalization" of journalistic images is not limited to women. In recent years, as long as journalists appear in film and television works, their instrumentality is more obvious.

They are often the backdrop for public pressure in the story. In many domestic urban dramas, there will be negative events for the protagonists, and when they go downstairs to the company, they are surrounded by a group of reporters carrying cameras, and ask sharp questions, which is also the embodiment of the protagonists being put under public pressure, completely ignoring that in today's Internet era, the media has long had a more efficient working method than this containment.

Occasionally, journalists are like Meng Yu in "Crazy", becoming naïve "reformed". The female reporter played by Yuan Shanshan in "So Many Jiao" lives in the city all year round, wearing tight skirts and high heels to shuttle through various reporting scenes, and when she receives poverty alleviation tasks from Taili to the village, she is often frightened by the "bad conditions" of rural life. But when she first arrived in the village, her whispering also became the focus of criticism from netizens.

What is cruel is that as a victim in the plot, it can help the "journalists" in these dramas to improve their reputation.

One of the best journalist images in recent years is the reporter played by Huang Yao in "The Silent Truth". She was one of the victims of sexual assault that year, and more than ten years later, she changed her name and surname to become a well-known reporter of the local newspaper, and became one of the protagonists of planning to overturn the case, completing the transformation from "protected" to "protector", and practicing justice in her own way.

Unfortunately, there are not many such weighty journalist roles. But it is not only journalists who are "instrumentalized" in domestic film and television works. Typed templates, creators can always be handy when they want to be lazy, just as when a rich and independent workplace elite is needed in domestic dramas now, it is always set as "investment bank executives".

From "Search" to "Keep You Safe"

Looking abroad, such as American film and television works, the image of journalists is not uncommon.

Some scholars have published books to statistically analyze different journalist images in movies at different stages. In their view, the image of journalists in movies is a reflection of their influence in real life.

In the 60s and 80s, when television became the main medium in American households, journalists were portrayed as having a great influence on public opinion, and many journalists committed vicious behaviors in pursuit of "ratings". During the period of media transformation from 2000 to 2019, journalists were mostly trembling and walking on thin ice in the transformation, but they still insisted on pursuing the image of truth with professional journalism.

It's just that journalists insist on pursuing the truth, and there is not necessarily a good ending.

In the movie "The Truth", two journalists were strongly blocked by the government when they reported on George W. Bush's fictional actions during the Vietnam War, and the two who insisted on telling the truth were also fired from television.

"The Truth"

Looking at domestic film and television works with this kind of reflection, you can also see the changes that occur after the replacement of new and old media.

Before the movie "Search", journalists in domestic film and television works rarely had a negative image. But the two female reporters in "Search" can be called the biggest villains in the movie, the heroine refused to give up an old man's seat when she got on the bus after learning that she had advanced cancer, was filmed by the reporter and broadcast as key news, and then the joint website hyped to guide everyone to attack the heroine, and deleted her apology video out of heat considerations - and the gender of these two journalists just echoes the gender trade-off of the journalist's profession in the previous article.

If you want to stir up a topic in "Search", traditional media is still a strong side. The video of the heroine on the bus refusing to give up her seat is broadcast on the ace program of the local TV station, and the website needs to obtain authorization from the TV station to cooperate in sending out the topic, and the TV station will also earn 130,000 yuan because of the SMS of this popular event.

But under the strong situation, the work of traditional media seems to be less glamorous than in past film and television works. The same female reporter, the female reporter in "Beautiful Women Also Worried About Marrying" has a high income and dresses beautifully, while the editor-in-chief of the TV ace column played by Yao Chen in "Search" basically has no traces of makeup, and her boyfriend and his sister are huddled in a narrow rental house, calculating how much income is left to buy a house.

In "Search", Yao Chen plays the editor-in-chief Chen Ruoxi

Eleven years after the release of "Search", a movie "Keep You Safe" with "Internet rumors" as the main plot was released, but in "Keep You Safe", whether it is the way the incident is exposed, or the way it is finally "refuted", there is even no trace of reporter intervention at all, and the incident is completely promoted by posts on self-media and online communities.

It's hard to even say whether such a profession is better to "often become a negative image" in film and television works, or to "disappear completely" when it should have appeared.

However, from being a strong guide to the topic to the development of public opinion that is completely hidden in one thing, the times are finally pushing people forward. People who actively participate in hot events have changed from "licensed media" to "self-media".

From an industry perspective, this is closely related to the wave of media change. Since 2014, the scale of the traditional advertising market has experienced negative growth for the first time, and newspapers such as the Oriental Morning Post, Beijing Morning Post, Beijing Times, and Legal Evening News have ceased publication one after another. Some of the media that are aware of the tide turn have encouraged their reporters to establish public accounts, and many of the later head self-media have been well-known reporters of traditional media.

Domestic film and television works have also tried to record this painful period, but this skin-to-skin pain does not seem to make more people other than media practitioners empathize. The drama "Dress" broadcast in 2022 is set in the 2016 fashion magazine and tells a series of stories when the magazine "Dress" unexpectedly faced a vacancy in editor-in-chief at the time of transformation. Among them, there are many media people's insistence on high-quality content and thinking before the turn of the times.

But the score of 5.4 on Douban still reveals that this "pain" is still suspended for most netizens.

"Self-media, also media ha?"

Let the protagonist return to the early 21st century as the protagonist of "More than Endless", with a Douban score of 7.5 points. The highest praise comment wrote: "As soon as Zhang Songwen appeared, I cried, watching him wear an old leather jacket and return with the smell of the golden age of newspapers, crying for his lost distant and once real journalistic ideals." ”

It was a journalist image that audiences were once familiar with. And now that the story of "Keep You Safe" takes place, even the characters in the story feel at a loss for the reporter.

The protagonist played by Dapeng disguised himself as a reporter went to the orphanage to ask about matters, and after asking, the aunt of the orphanage asked: "Which media reporter did you just say you were from?" The protagonist was stunned for a moment and replied: "Self-media." The aunt asked with some hesitation: "Self-media, also media ha?" ”

At this moment, the aunt was at a loss with the creators of the moment.

They clearly know that in the era of self-media, short videos are a strong medium, and they also know that journalists are still the most reasonable identity when asking questions and looking for clues to strangers. Film and television works need journalists, but what kind of appearance should they take? From journalists to self-media, from one concept to another, in addition to the visible traffic dividend, what are the guidance of information transmission?

This kind of familiarity and strangeness, falling into the specific creation of film and television works, is the reality that most journalists' images are templated and instrumental: on the one hand, the absurdity of these characters' thinking standards and acting styles is the existence that neither the audience nor practitioners can directly see; On the other hand, the other side of the absurdity is the change itself, and in fact, many people, whether practitioners or not, have gradually accepted that some changes occur.

Chilling gusts of wind are howling, and then the air is full of the smell of "survival of the fittest".

For example, under the banner of "Convergence Media", there are indeed many "new Internet celebrities" with traditional media backgrounds who have advanced with the times. Sichuan Watch, which is affiliated with Sichuan Radio and Television, has more than 47 million Douyin fans and has repeatedly appeared on the hot search list. Different from the traditional thinking of local news in other local media, the content released by "Sichuan Watch" covers everything from international situation news to funny entertainment videos, and is also jokingly called by netizens "Sichuan Observation, Observe Everywhere, Just Don't Observe Sichuan." ”

We are also used to non-traditional forms of information. It's just that most of the time, the era of self-media is accompanied by a simpler entry point and a more intense emotional point than before, which has penetrated into the medulla oblongata, regardless of whether it is official or not.

In an interview with GQ, a reporter from Zhejiang TV's Minsheng Leisure Channel "1818 GoldenEye" once said proudly, "It's Alibaba, Greentown, Geely, and Zhejiang's local three giants." Who dares to touch except 1818? This shows the depth of his reporting. But this show has been influential in the local livelihood program since 2004, "1818 GoldenEye" has been on many hot searches in recent years, the most famous of which is "hairline Xiao Wu".

"Hairline Xiao Wu"

The report also wrote that 1818 GoldenEye has 21 resident reporters who have repeatedly gone into danger to investigate the clues provided by the audience and dared to report on the negative aspects of big business. But what can be on the hot search and bring heat and benefits to the show is often only a story like Xiao Wu.

In 2020, "1818 GoldenEye" even launched GoldenEye MCN, whose main business includes short video incubation, account agency operation, e-commerce live broadcast, online celebrity live broadcast training, brand building and so on. After holding out several Internet celebrities with slightly strange people's livelihood news, "1818 GoldenEye" seems to want to hold the initiative of people and the traffic after holding Internet celebrities.

In a certain sense, the words of "1818 GoldenEye" people believe that the establishment of MCN does not affect the program to still actively respond to the complaints and needs of the local people and become a strong local "supervisor".

From investigation and supervision to incubating Internet celebrities, it is already difficult to distinguish whether they are "swimming against the current" or going down the river - this kind of twisting, just like these domestic film and television works depicting the present, in the pen of those screenwriters who no longer pursue common sense, the reporters who are still "iron-shouldered morality" on the surface of the screen continue to be naïve and continue to be absurd.