EOTO what I learned 1

 

Oz Jensen

What I learned


    Before last class, I did not know much of anything about journalism's rich history, however after that class I feel like I have a better understanding of the history of journalism in America. 

For example, I learned about Mary Add Shad, who became the first black woman to publish and edit a weekly newspaper. Although her newspaper shut down as it was unpopular due to its fierce fighting for civil rights. Unfortunately, because of the bias at the time, Shad never was able to take credit for her work.



Mary Ann Shadd - Wikipedia


     I also learned about William Randolph Hurst, a man that started a media empire that is still around today. Hurst had over 20 million readers for his newspaper per day. Hurst owned 28 newspapers, 18 magazines, and was elected to the house twice as a democrat. 


William Randolph Hearst - Children, Quotes & Joseph Pulitzer - Biography


    Another great journalist I learned about was Jane Cunningham Croly who had the first women's column in a newspaper, which became extremely popular. She then founded Sorosis, the first organization that dedicated itself to getting women more professional opportunities in journalism. The bravery of these journalists is inspiring as they risked their lives to make the world a better place. 


Jane Cunningham Croly - Wikipedia



    Benjamin Franklin is one of my favorite historical figures but I didn't know that he had such roots in journalism. However Franklin who was introduced to journalism by his brother James at a young age, and even started writing articles under the pen name Silence Dogood when he was just 16. The Franklin brothers then owned a print shop, which was a very lucrative and influential business at the time. Franklin wrote for the Pennsylvania Gazette, the most popular newspaper in early America. 


Benjamin Franklin - Wikipedia







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bernstein and Woodward

Image
      Oz Jensen   Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward      Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward are the perfect example of why the 4th estate, as well as free speech are such essential parts of a functioning democracy. The journalists exposed illegal activities by an acting president, directly leading to his being the first President in history to step down from power.   What was Watergate?          In the morning of June 17, 1972 , several burglars were arrested at The Office of National Democratic committee. The next day, it was released that the men who were arrested had connections to Richard Nixon. In the immediate aftermath however, it appeared as though Nixon would get away with it. Even with the scandal, Nixon easily won 1972 reelection, earning a whopping 520 electoral college votes.      This all changed very quickly after Woodward and Bernstein released their book, "All the President's men" in which, with the help of a deep government source, referred to as Deep Throa
Read more

War Blog

Image
 Oz Jensen      In 1897 when William Randolph Hurst got a cable that stated "There will be no war" he responded with "You furnish the pictures and I will furnish the war.", sure enough, in February of 1898 the USA declared war on Spain after The U.S.S Maine blew up.      Hurst took advantage right away, understanding that war with Spain over Cuba would sell more copies of his newspaper , Hurst started a public campaign falsely propagating that Spain had definitely blown to U.S.S Maine and that America should respond strongly. Thanks to "yellow journalism" from the media, and especially Hurst public sentiment for the war was at an all time high.  The role of a journalist is often referred to as the 4th estate , referring to the power journalists have over public opinion and ability to impact political issues. For the most part in cases such as watergate, this is an exceptionally good thing, but what happens when journalists, similar to Hearst, ignore the t
Read more

muckraking and yellow journalism

Image
                                                                Muckraking and yellow journalism blog      While yellow journalism and muckraking are often used interchangeably, there is a difference between the two distinct types of journalism. While muckraking involves investigating powerful people for scandalous information, Yellow Journalism involves utilizing sensationalism and exaggeration over facts to get more readers and influence.      The fact that these two journalistic styles are responsible for journalists having more power, and the usual powerful people to have less, powerful people are usually not fans of Muckraking or Yellow Journalism.      While at times using sensationalism can be a bad thing, sometimes there are correct reasons. An example of this could be Paul Revere's cartoon of the Boston massacre.      While we are aware that this is not an accurate representation of what happened in the Boston Massacre, this type of journalism helped changed public perce
Read more