Mourning the Lies the Movies Taught Us About Being a Journalist

“Journalism is Fucked and We’re All Doomed” is my ongoing column looking at issues affecting entertainment journalism writers.

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Earlier this week, Twitter (yes, I am calling it this till the day I die) saw a viral post focused on how movies sold us a bill of goods when it came to what careers in journalism looked like. The main post associated with it showed screenshots from Confessions of a Shopaholic, Ugly Betty, How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, and 13 Going on 30. The overall feeling from people – many of whom I don't believe were actual journalists – mourned a variety of things: that journalism isn't an affordable profession, that it doesn't involve office culture, and that you don't have adorable hair while doing it.

It's funny that, for the most part, all of the movies cited in this discussion focused on female journalists, many of whom worked in fictional beauty or lifestyle-brand magazines. Andie, Kate Hudson's character from How to Lose a Guy, was a serious journalist who deigned to write a hit column for the glamour mag Composure, while 13 Going on 30's Jenna Rink (Jennifer Garner) has to rebrand Sparkle magazine....and generally turns it into YM. You'll be my best friend if you read that one!