With the help of the team from Midwest Film Journal, we’ve added 10 more films to our growing Journalism Movies Ranked list, including the recently released “Civil War” and a Fritz Lang film from the 1950s. To find out where these rank on our list — which now numbers 200 flicks — visit here. And we have no intention of stopping as long as movie producers keep producing films the showcase journalism (for good or ill). And now to the films: Civil War (2024). A thinly coded right-wing President succeeds at a third term in office and the United States splits into four nebulously defined but heavil ..read more

Time magazine hired illustrator and photographer Matt Mahurin to design its June 27, 1994, cover featuring O.J. Simpson. Mahurin reflects on his decision to darken a police mug shot of Simpson and the controversy that followed in “The Imagemaker’s Handbook,” his five-volume exploration of life as a professional artist, coming out this fall. He shared an excerpt with Quill. There was a good chance Newsweek magazine would be running the same image on its cover. This distinct possibility dictated I create a cover option for Time that would set the competing publications apart. Both magazines ..read more

In a week that started with the Sunday murders of O.J. Simpson’s ex-wife and her friend and ended Friday with a low-speed police chase of the ex-football star and eventually his arrest, Time magazine planned to feature Simpson on its cover. Editors commissioned a painting of Simpson by Greg Spalenka to consider for its June 27, 1994, cover but also could choose from numerous photos of him from freelance photographers and news services. Another option came at 2 a.m. Saturday: the just-released mug shot of Simpson from the Los Angeles Police Department. Despite concerns about the deadline, Manag ..read more

Note: The popularity of this story prompted us to treat it as a dynamic document, adding more reviews as appropriate movies are released or discovered. So what started as “110 Journalism Movies, Ranked” has morphed into “190 Journalism Movies Ranked.” And soon we’ll hit the 200 mark. Hollywood helps define just about everything in America. And journalism is no exception. From “Citizen Kane” to “The Post” and from “Libeled Lady” to “All the President’s Men,” reporters have clashed with editors, danced on both sides of the ethical line, and otherwise populated hits and duds on the silver screen ..read more

The practice of publishing summations of the lives of the recently deceased goes back a very long way. The ancient Romans developed an early, beta version of the modern obituary (roughly translated from the Latin as “death record”), which they included on publicly posted, handwritten broadsheets called Acta diurna (Daily Events). It wasn’t until roughly the middle of the 20th century that more detailed, feature-length obits – typically still about prominent international, national and regional luminaries – caught on. “Journalism is typically so momentary,” said Tom Rosenstiel, former executive ..read more

Arthur Kane, investigations editor at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, wasn’t exactly buddies with fellow RJ investigative reporter Jeff German, but for six years the two were colleagues, teaming up occasionally to break stories about civic corruption and other Sin City scandals. German worked the Vegas beat for more than four decades, regularly facing down physical threats from his investigative targets. It happened so often that he and Kane made a half-serious vow to investigate, should one or the other meet an untimely end.  That running joke became Kane’s mission when German’s investigat ..read more

At age 92, Leonard Levin is a past president and one of the longest active members of the SPJ-New England with more than 70 years in the organization. Levin began his career at the Pawtucket Times in Rhode Island, where he worked his way up to the copy desk. In 1963, he got a job as a copy editor for the Providence Journal, where he stayed for more than 30 years while also starting as an adjunct professor at the University of Rhode Island journalism department. After he retired from the Journal, Levin was tapped by a friend to work part-time as a copy editor at the Patriot Ledger in Quincy, Ma ..read more

The impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the journalism industry is undeniable. Views on AI vary from optimism to fear, with no straightforward consensus on how these tools should and shouldn’t be used by journalists. But one thing is clear: these tools are here to stay. A recent survey found AI was used by 90% of newsrooms in news production, by 80% for news distribution, and by 75% for news gathering, including transcription and auto-summarization. Conducted by JournalismAI, an initiative from The London School of Economics and Political Science journalism think-tank Polis, the small su ..read more

The hits — and flops — just keep on coming. With the help of the team from Midwest Film Journal, we’ve added 10 more films to our growing Journalism Movies Ranked list, including 2023’s outstanding “Origin” and the just-released “Scoop.” To find out where these rank on our list — which now numbers 190 flicks — visit here. (And look for the list to hit 200 with our next installment). Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor in “Origin.” Photo courtesy of Neon. Origin (2023). We’re used to movies about an intrepid journalist trying to track down a story. But here comes one where a journalist is trying to hone a ..read more

Every good journalist knows the importance of adhering to high ethical standards, but each year, some fail to do so. The past year was no different. Let’s face it, our image has been tarnished for quite a while, and it doesn’t help when colleagues confirm the questionable integrity many Americans already suspect. Here, we review a few of the most memorable ethical missteps in 2023 as a reminder of what we should not be doing as journalists. From knowingly feeding lies to viewers to putting too much confidence into new technology, some of the flubs carried serious financial or reputational cons ..read more