Female journalists’ representation in Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Realm

Abstract

Cinema has incorporated the journalism profession into its narratives because of its inherent potential for creating narratives with a high degree of interest. In the collective imagination, journalists are positioned as the fourth estate and bear a social responsibility. In the early days of cinema until around the 1990s, women occupied secondary roles compared to their male counterparts, through stereotypical characters portrayed as cold, unyielding, ambitious professionals ready to do whatever it took to get the news at the expense of their personal lives. They are depicted as masculinised and sexualised. Using a methodological triangulation that applies descriptive analysis techniques, film analysis and in-depth interviews, the feature film The Realm, by Rodrigo Sorogoyen is studied to determine how the figure of the female journalist is represented in it. After studying the results, it can be concluded that present-day female journalists do not find an accurate representation of their profession in The Realm or cinema in general. This discrepancy stems from the persistent perpetuation of certain stereotypes that influence how women journalists' role is portrayed on the big screen.