Articulo_7_EN_Doxa_29

Therefore, image has become a perfect tool for reflecting reality, transmitting ideas, and creating direct contact with society, and this has been echoed in those heroes and villains of journalism who share the work on Spanish cinema screens. From the 1970s to the present day, American and English literature has raised the dichotomy of heroes and villains in films in-volving journalists, and this can be seen in authors such as Brian McNair (2010), Matthew C. Ehrlich (2006), Howard Good (1989 and 2008), and the pioneer of journalist classification in cinema, Alex Barris (1976).

In Spain, important investigations have already been carried out, and the present analysis of villains in Spanish cinema in the 1990s can be added to the list. The doctoral thesis entitled, La imagen y la ética del periodista en el cine español (1896-2010), defended by Professor Lucía Tello Díaz at Complutense University of Madrid in 2011, is connected to the content of this research. Professor Tello published La Enseñanza de la Ética Periodística a través del cine in 2012, and two other books in 2016: Diccionario del periodista en el cine español (1896-2010), a manual in which she analyses titles representative of journalists and establishes some characteristics regarding these professionals, and Hablemos de cine. 20 cineastas conver-san sobre el cuarto poder.

In the first part of her thesis, Professor Tello studies the indicative traits, characteristics, vices, images and stereotypes of the journalist in Spanish cinema and stresses the differences in the way in which men and women are portrayed in Spanish films involving reporters. The second part includes interviews with directors such as José Luis Garci, Carlos Saura, Álex de la Iglesia, Jesús Franco, Basilio Martín Patino, Gonzalo Suárez, Jordi Mollà and David Trueba, who explain why they use the media in their films. Thus, Professor Tello’s vision is far removed from our structuralist methodology and the conclusions that this present work is able to achieve regarding heroes and villains in the press, with special attention paid in these pages to the latter.

La imagen de la periodista profesional en el cine de ficción de 1990 a 1999, is another doctoral thesis presented in October of 2009 at the University of La Coruña by Olga Osorio Iglesias. Like the present research, her work is based on a very com-parable sample. Osorio gathers a sampling of 112 films, but the protagonists she analyses are only women, and exclusively from North American cinema.

Researchers from the University of the Basque Country, including Ofa Bezunartea, María José Cantalapiedra, César Coca, Aingeru Genaut, Simón Peña and Jesús Pérez have been some of the most productive in recent years in the field of film journalism. Studies published in specialized journals such as Periodistas de cine y ética, or Si hay sangre, hay noticias. Rece-tas cinematográficas para el éxito periodístico, both from 2007, as well as Divismo y narcisismo de los periodistas en el cine or ¿Y qué? Es periodista y además es guapa, both from 2008 as well, analyse models of behavior and the cinematic portrayal of journalists.In 2010, the article entitled El perfil de los periodistas en el cine: tópicos agigantados was published. Another research paper that generated interest was Periodistas de cine y ética, which presented in one of its epigraphs the dicho-tomy of heroes and villains that supports our work. With good and bad characters, they try to reflect the concept of right and wrong. “Films tend to create stereotypes, special archetypes for special situations, and thus heroes and villains appear; moral individuals along with people who are deceitful and corrupt, instead of average professionals” (2007: 376). As in the case of Professor Osorio, the Basque group deals with North American cinema, so our work gives a very different reading of cinema involving journalists, based exclusively on Spanish productions.