Repackaged sob sisters and outsiders within: reading the female and minority journalists on The Bold Type and The Morning Show

Abstract

Female and minority journalists are confronted with many obstacles to access and act in the journalism profession ranging from the glass ceiling to a gender pay gap. These obstacles translate into unbalanced representations of female journalists in fictional movies and series in which they are underrepresented and often framed as emotional, unstable, inexperienced, and unprofessional. These representations reiterate and preserve existing inequalities in Western newsrooms but also have the potential to subvert and challenge existing structures and imagine more inclusive and equal newsrooms. Therefore, this study proposes a qualitative textual analysis of the representation of female journalists in the American fiction series The Morning Show (AppleTV+, 2019) and The Bold Type (Freeform, 2017). From a feminist media studies and intersectional perspective, it looks into the gendered power dynamics in newsrooms that are embedded in the series' narratives. We found that The Bold Type represents an inclusive work environment aimed at creating equal opportunities but at the same time deals with the obstacles that are still in place for female and minority journalists without critiquing them. This whereas The Morning Show offers a direct critique by representing the inability of female and minority journalists to properly deal with these obstacles.