Post #5: A Five Star Review for the "Five Star Final"

"You've grown rich on filth."

 I thoroughly enjoyed watching the 1931 film called the "Five Star Final" in class. The New York Evening Gazette managing editor, Joseph Randall, played by Edward Robinson, is determined to revive a twenty year old murder case that involved Nancy Vorhees. She was charged for shooting the father of her child for his infidelity. The film shows Nancy in the present now married while also planning the marriage of her daughter. Joseph Randall sends reporter, T. Vernon Isopod, to cover the story, leading to massive consequences for all.

The newspaper at the end of the film about the death of Nancy and her husband. 

 The movie covered several topics we have discussed already in class such as yellow journalism and how the movie reflected journalism ethics. 

Yellow journalism is extremely visible in the movie and portrays the unethical practices of tabloid newspapers where sensationalism is prioritized over accuracy and ethical reporting. The New York Evening Gazette is the most obvious example of yellow journalism as owner and editor are obsessed with boosting circulation by centering their stories on sensationalist and scandalous categories, even if they are based on misinformation. 

The film shows how the paper used its power to exploit unprotected people, like the Vorhees, for their own personal gain. As a result, this led Nancy and her husband to commit suicide because of their suffering. 

The attempt at trying to get the paper to become a huge success turned for the worst as a vulnerable family was sadly hurt in the process and the newspaper was defeated. This emotional ending just goes to show how journalism can be unethical at times, even today. 

By focusing only on sensationalism, the writers only cared about themselves and their popularity. I believe the quote stated above truly sums up the basis of the movie and the reality of the journalism industry. Yellow journalism emphasizes the concept of "growing rich on filth", that filth being misinformation that hurts people's reputation. 

Overall, I learned to avoid yellow journalism because of the movie as it is hurtful to others and breaks ethical guidelines. 

Post #4: EOTO #1 Reaction

Out of all of the presentations given in class, the topic of the Penny Press and yellow journalism sparked my interest the most.

The Penny Press

The Penny Press was a type of inexpensive newspaper invented in 1883 by Benjamin Henry Day. Day was a printer from New England in his twenty's and shortly after the invention of the Penny Press, began to use new-steam powered printing press that produced the paper faster. The newspaper focused on sensational stories, human interest pieces, local news, crime, scandals, and general gossip. It was only sold by subscription and not by typical advertising in order to reach a bigger audience. The paper only costed one cent, quite literally emphasizing the inexpensiveness and making it extremely affordable to the average person and not just the wealthy. 

The Penny Press was usually sold directly on the street by newsboys ranging from ages six to sixteen years old. Most of these boys were either homeless or poor and was the only source of income for themselves and their families. In addition to this, the tactic was also a way for the newspaper sales to increase in popularity and money. 

Yellow Journalism

On the other hand, yellow journalism is a style of reporting that valued sensationalism and emotions over facts. Many newspapers would push propaganda and twist the news so that it would intentionally invoke a certain reaction in people. Yellow journalism, as discussed in my blog post about William Randolph Hearst, started when him and Joseph Pulitzer were competing for readership using yellow journalism, even if the information wasn't accurate. The feud later resulted in increased pressure on the U.S., Spain, and Cuba to go into the Spanish-American War.

 In today's world, there are many instances of the term although it isn't necessarily referred to as yellow journalism. Many media and news organizations continue to use certain headlines to attract a particular audience, even including specific words to keep the reader engaged. Nowadays, bias has slowly snuck its way into almost every article. The term "misinformation" is commonly portrayed in the news stories when companies report false rumors or lies to the public. It seems as if most organizations place more importance on the number of views than being ethical with the accurate coverage of a story. 

Post #2: Midterm Recap

Throughout each class period, we have covered a various amount of information regarding the history of journalism dating all the way back to the 1600's. Given we are at the halfway point of the semester, let's recap about what we have learned so far. 

To start off, the most basic thing to understand are the Six Clauses or "Freedoms" listed in the First Amendment: freedom from religion, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of press (a fundamental, personal right not an institutional one), freedom of assembly, and freedom of petition or protest. Perhaps it can be confusing sometimes knowing the difference between freedom FROM religion and freedom OF religion. They may seem to go hand in hand as they both involve religion, but are actually contrasting concepts. Freedom of religion protects an individuals right to believe and practice any religion or none at all. On the other hand, freedom from religion prohibits the free exercise of religion. Nonetheless, it is thanks to the First Amendment that we are all able to have our fundamental rights protected in our everyday lives, allowing us to have the opportunity to live more openly as human beings. 

Moving past the First Amendment, another notable lesson I believe that needs to be highlighted is the Colonial Press Era. 

The Colonial Press Era lasted from the late 1600's to the late 1700's. In 1690, Benjamin Harris and Richard Pierce invented the newspaper, Publick Occurrences, where they ended up being jailed for printing and publishing the paper because they didn't have a license. As a result, the newspaper only had one issue since it began and ended in the same day. In 1704, the Boston Newsletter was founded by John Campbell and covered news directly from England, local events, etc. Additionally, in 1769, Isaac Doolittle became the first American to sell and manufacture a mechanical printing press that printed multiple pages in a fast amount of time. 

There is no doubt that the Colonial Press Era served as a guide for journalists throughout the rest of history. It ultimately was the beginning of journalism and contributed to the establishment of a nation founded on freedom of expression. The creation of the first printing press is so important as it allowed people to be able to have a reliable source of communication beyond the colonies. 

Overall, the information covered from the beginning of the semester to the midpoint allowed me to be able to gain new and valuable knowledge about the start of journalism in our country. 

Post #3: EOTO #1 (William Randolph Hearst)

As this is my first presentation in the class, I was very fascinated to learn all about one of the most influential people in journalism history, William Randolph Hearst. 

William Randolph Hearst was born on April 29, 1863 in San Francisco, California. He was known as an American newspaper publisher who built one of the largest newspaper chains in the nation.

In 1887, he took control of the San Francisco Examiner, which his father bought in 1880 for political purposes. Hearst turned the paper into a blend of reformist investigative reporting and sensationalism by using his family's wealth to hire top talent in the newspaper field. 

By 1895, Hearst ventured to New York City to purchase the infamous New York Journal. He started to compete against Joseph Pulitzer, another well-known journalist at the time, for the attention and wealth of the large working class that made the 

New York World the city’s most popular newspaper during the time period. Both papers competed for readership by using sensationalist style writing. Sensationalist writing can differ between using it to sell more papers by appealing to human emotions or to influence the public's view on a topic. Also around this newspaper rivalry, the term "yellow journalism" reached its height when both papers' exaggerated coverage of Cuba's struggle for independence from Spain led to increased pressure on the U.S. government to intervene which eventually turned into the Spanish-American War.

Fast forward to 1902, Hearst was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from New York City and hoped to win the Democratic presidential nomination. Also in 1902, he married Millicent Willson and had 5 sons together: George, William Randolph Jr., John, Randolph, and David. As time went on, Hearst started to expand his publishing empire to Chicago, Los Angeles, and Boston. By 1904, William had lost the Democratic presidential bid to Alton B. Parker, but wanted to run to be Mayor of New York City. Unfortunately, he lost this too. 

Given these negative outcomes, he decided to solely focus on his journalism career and expanded his media empire to almost every major American city: magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Town and Country, and Harper’s Bazaar were included. Along with this, Hearst gave the film business a try where he produced weekly news reels and segmented dramatic films that were shown in movie theaters all over the world.  Besides his newspaper career, Hearst was a staunch isolationist and used his media platform to advocate for the U.S. to avoid WWI. In 1917, Hearst became romantically involved with a young actress named Marion Davies and lived together openly in the West Coast while he was still married to Millicent Willson who lived in New York City. Although Millicent knew about the affair, the two never divorced. 

Around the 1920’s, he began building a palatial hilltop estate on close to 250,000 acres of land in San Simeon, California in which he inherited upon the death of his mother. When the Great Depression hit in the late 1920’s, his media empire was negatively impacted like many other businesses. During this time, he ended up turning against Franklin D. Roosevelt although he originally supported him, speaking little of the New Deal as Soviet-style communism. Hearst’s reactionary politics increased and isolated working class readers from his newspaper. 

In 1941, Citizen Kane was released and angered Hearst as he believed the main character was based on his own personal life being that they portrayed him as a obsessive media star. He attempted to shut down the production of the film, banned advertisements of the movie, and published bitter personal attacks on Orson Welles, one of the creators of the film.

As the economy was beginning to revive by WWII, Hearst slowly came out of his financial struggles in control of a deteriorated but intimidating media empire. Despite this hopeful news, his health started to worsen in the late 1940’s so he moved from San Simeon to Los Angeles to be closer to doctors. He eventually died on August 14, 1951 in Beverly Hills, California at the age of 88. 

It is no doubt that William Randolph Hearst left a lasting impact in the world of journalism that will continue to be honored. Even though he repeatedly had obstacles thrown his way, he was able t from his thriving newspaper empire to his political aspirations, Hearst positively shaped the journalism industry into what we know and love today.