In the first study of its kind, images of the journalist in silent film are examined in Part One (1890 to 1919) of a landmark study, “The Image of the Journalist in Silent Film, 1890 to 1929.” This is the first comprehensive study of the beginning of cinema’s earliest depictions of journalists and the use of journalism in silent film movie plots. Each film has been categorized by decade, genre, gender, ethnicity, media category, job title, and description (evaluation of the image presented by each journalist or group of journalists on a subjective scale from very positive and positive to negative and very negative to neutral). The study reveals that all of the journalist stereotypes commonplace in the 20th century began in the silent film era. In addition, 11 accompanying appendices annotate each of the 1,937 films with reproductions of the original reviews and supplementary materials.
(Article Revised 1-2-2020)