Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford in All the President’s Men

Films, documentaries and TV series about newspaper journalism

Citizen Kane, 1941: film directed by Orson Welles; starring Orson Welles. Orson Welles’s classic portrayal of a fictional press baron inspired from William Randolph Hearst.

All the President’s Men, 1976: film directed by Alan J. Pakula; starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. A historical thriller tracing Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s investigation into the Watergate scandal for The Washington Post.

State of Play, 2003 (BBC): TV series created by Paul Abbott; starring David Morrissey and John Simm. A British mini-series following a newspaper’s investigation into the mysterious death of a political researcher.

Page One: Inside the New York Times, 2011: documentary film by Andrew Rossi. An immersion into everyday work at the iconic American newspaper, with a focus on the new struggles it was facing due to digital competition.

Black and White and Dead all Over, 2013: documentary film by Chris Foster. A reflection on the demise of print journalism in the U.S.

Spotlight, 2015: film directed by Tom McCarthy: starring Mark Ruffalo and Michael Keaton. A historical film about The Boston Globe’s investigation into systemic child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests in Boston in the early 2000s.

The Post, 2017: film directed by Steven Spielberg; starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks. A historical thriller about the publication of the Pentagon Papers by The Washington Post and The New York Times.

Press, 2018 (BBC): TV series created by Mike Bartlett; starring Charlotte Riley and Ben Chaplin. A TV series focusing on the rivalry between two British newspapers.

Films, documentaries and TV series about television

Network, 1976: film directed by Sidney Lumet; starring William Holden, Faye Dunaway and Peter Finch. A classic satire of American television.

The Truman Show, 1998: film directed by Peter Weir; starring Jim Carrey. A dystopian satire of reality television, celebrity culture, and surveillance technology. 

The Insider, 1999: film directed by Michael Mann; starring Russell Crowe and Al Pacino. A historical thriller about the financial pressures bearing on investigative journalism on American television.

The Hour, 2011-2012 (BBC): TV series created by Abi Morgan; starring Dominic West, Romola Garai, and Ben Whishaw. A TV series on a news magazine on the BBC in the 1950s.

The Newsroom, 2012-2014 (HBO): TV series created by Aaron Sorkin; starring Jeff Daniels. A TV series about a fictional cable news channel.

Nightcrawler, 2014: film directed by Dan Gilroy; starring Jake Gyllenhaal. A thriller about a freelance videographer who records violent events late at night in Los Angeles and sells the footage to local news stations.

W1A, 2014-2017 (BBC): TV series created by John Morton; starring Hugh Bonneville. A satire of the BBC.

The Loudest Voice, 2019 (Showtime): TV series created by Tom McCarthy; starring Russell Crowe and Seth MacFarlane. A TV series about Roger Ailes, the chairman and CEO of Fox News.

Films about the radio

FM, 1978: film directed by John A. Alonzo; starring Michael Brandon. A comedy about a radio station.

Radio Days, 1987: film directed by Woody Allen; starring Mia Farrow. A comedy evoking the Golden Age of Radio in the U.S. 

Talk Radio, 1988: film directed by Oliver Stone; starring Eric Bogosian and Alec Baldwin. A thriller about a controversial radio show host.

The Boat that Rocked / Pirate Radio, 2009: film directed by Richard Curtis; starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Bill Nighy. A comedy about a fictional pirate radio inspired from Radio Caroline.

Corporate FM, 2012: documentary film by Kevin McKinney. A documentary on the demise of the radio in the U.S.

Films addressing the political, social and economic problems raised by the media & IT in the digital age

Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, 1992; documentary film directed by Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick. A documentary film presenting Chomsky’s political critique of the media.

The Social Network, 2010: directed by David FIncher; starring Jesse Eisenberg. A portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg and his creation of Facebook.

Black Mirror, 2011- (Channel 4 / Netflix): created by Charlie Brooker. A dystopian TV series addressing the consequences of the progress of information technology and consumerism. 

The Fifth Estate, 2013: directed by Bill Condon; starring Benedict Cumberbatch. A film about Wikileaks and its founder, Julian Assange.

Citizenfour, 2014: documentary film directed by Laura Poitras. A documentary film about whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press, 2017 (Netflix); documentary directed by Brian Knappenberger. A documentary about the effects of big money on American journalism.

The Circle, 2017: film directed by James Ponsoldt; starring Emma Watson and Tom Hanks. A techno-thriller about the ubiquitous powers of surveillance of tech companies like the GAFAM.

Succession, 2018-2023 (HBO): TV series created by Jesse Armstrong; starring Brian Cox and Jeremy Strong. A TV series about a global media and entertainment conglomerate inspired from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

Brexit: The Uncivil War, 2019: directed by Toby Haynes; starring Benedict Cumberbatch. A TV film about the 2016 Vote Leave campaign, focusing on its campaign director Dominic Cummings.

The Great Hack, 2019; documentary film by Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer. A documentary about the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal.

The Social Dilemma, 2020; documentary film directed by Jeff Orlowski. A documentary about the negative influence of social media.

The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty, 2020 (BBC): documentary film directed by Jamie Roberts. A documentary about the business magnate Rupert Murdoch and his political influence.

Impeachment: American Crime Story, 2021 (FX); TV series created by Ryan Murphy; starring Sarah Paulson, Beanie Feldstein, and Clive Owen. A TV series about the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, focusing on the role played by the conservative media, both traditional and online.

Don’t Look Up!, 2022: film directed by Adam McCay; starring Leonardo Di Caprio and Jennifer Lawrence. An apocalyptic comedy satirizing celebrity culture and media indifference to climate change.