Billy Crudup in Season 4 of Apple TV+’s “The Morning Show.”
Journalism is taking center stage at the moment across a variety of different streaming platforms.
A fresh wave of streaming content that includes TV shows, both new series and returning favorites, as well as high-profile documentaries is helping to shine a light on the fourth estate — with the newest titles touching on everything from the profession’s larger-than-life personalities to iconic publications that challenged norms. The coming months will also visit fictional newsrooms wrestling with the kinds of crises that are all too real.
From Hulu’s portrait of a broadcast icon to a new HBO docuseries that reexamines a feminist media revolution, the picks that we’ve rounded up below dive into the messy, inspiring, and often chaotic business of reporting the news. Together, they spotlight four of the latest journalism-themed releases from streamers including Hulu, HBO, Apple TV+, and Peacock.
New and upcoming journalism-themed streaming picks
As someone who’s worked in this profession for a couple of decades now, I’d argue that few industries are as naturally suited to drama and documentary storytelling as journalism – a function of things like the generally high stakes and the pursuit of truth that’s often at the center of these kinds of stories. The streaming titles below tap into that dynamic, each in their own unique way.
Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything (Now Streaming on Hulu)
Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything is a documentary film directed by Jackie Jesko that presents a retrospective of Barbara Walters’ life and work.
The broadcast icon, who died in 2022, went on to become one of the most recognizable faces in U.S. TV news despite beginning in what was then a male-dominated field. Among other achievements, she helped change what journalism on television could be, blending hard-nosed interviews with a conversational style that connected with millions of viewers.
This film, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this month, traces Walters’ long TV career, as well as her influence on journalism and celebrity culture. Walters herself is also heard from in her own voice through previously unreleased recordings, which supplements the film’s archival footage and interviews with colleagues and public figures including Oprah Winfrey, Joy Behar, and Katie Couric.
Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print (Debuts July 2 on HBO and HBO Max)
The next title on our journalism-themed streaming list offers a reminder that some magazines spark conversation — and then there are publications like Ms., which sparked a revolution.
Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print is an upcoming three-part HBO docuseries that charts how Ms. reshaped journalism by focusing on women’s voices and their lived experiences. Directed by Salima Koroma, Alice Gu, and Cecilia Aldarondo, the series also goes beyond the magazine itself to explore the movement it helped ignite — which it does in part thanks to the inclusion of interviews with founders like Gloria Steinem and Letty Cottin Pogrebin.
Each episode unpacks a chapter in Ms.’s evolution, from its bold launch to its clashes with advertisers and its ongoing reckoning with issues of race, sex, and representation. What Dear Ms. delivers is also more than a history lesson; it’s an intimate portrait of feminist media in motion. And it’s about the kinds of stories that women tell when they’re the ones in control of the narrative.
The Morning Show: Season 4 (Premieres Sept. 17 on Apple TV+)
Apple TV+’s prestige newsroom drama is coming back this fall, and this time the story will pick up in the spring of 2024 — two years after the end of Season 3.
The fourth season of The Morning Show will continue its exploration of power, ambition, and truth in modern media. In terms of the new season’s story: With a corporate merger complete, the fictional UBA network faces new threats — from deepfakes and disinformation to behind-the-scenes betrayals. Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston reprise their roles as dueling anchors, joined this season by newcomers including Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons, and William Jackson Harper.
The Morning Show has racked up a slew of awards (including multiple Emmys for Billy Crudup as the charismatic Cory Ellison) and critical acclaim for its take on what happens when idealism meets ratings pressure. The show is basically a dramatization of how news is made, sometimes manipulated, and monetized.
The Paper (coming to Peacock this September, date TBA)
This final journalism-themed streaming release is the most old school-focused of the bunch.
From the creators of The Office comes a new mockumentary that trades Dunder Mifflin’s cubicles for a drab Midwestern newsroom. The Paper follows the crew behind The Toledo Truth Teller, a small newspaper with a shrinking number of subscriptions, and staffed by a skeleton crew of idealists.
Set in the same universe as The Office and filmed by that show’s same fictional documentary team, this new Peacock series features a blend of fresh faces and familiar ones — including the return of Oscar Nuñez as accountant Oscar Martinez, while the rest of the cast include Domhnall Gleeson and Sabrina Impacciatore. Co-created by Greg Daniels and Michael Koman, expect The Paper to skewer everything from the existential crisis confronting local journalism to Gen Z office politics.
I’ll certainly be among the viewers feeling a twinge of nostalgia with this upcoming streaming release, seeing as I once spent more time than I’d have preferred slogging away in the trenches of a daily print newsroom. Which is why I’m especially curious to see how the show grapples with the collapse of regional newspapers — and the absurdity of trying to save a newsroom with little more than grit and good intentions.
