EOTO Reflection: Frederick Douglass and The North Star

 I have always loved listening to other students present their projects in class. I like listening to different subjects and what each group found interesting. I have been learning a lot about Frederick Douglass in a couple of my other classes and this presentation tied all of that information together. 

Douglass was a key figure in the anti-slavery era and was able to accomplish many things after he himself escaped the system. Originally from Maryland, Douglass was captured and became forced to be a slave for 20 years. He managed to escape and went up to New York City. He then went on to write an autobiography about his experience as a slave and then eventually establish The North Star.  

Founded on December 3, 1847 in New York, The North Star became the first antislavery newspaper. The newspaper printed every fact, document, story, etc about slavery and the antislavery movement.

He believed that if he had his own newspaper he could change the way black americans were going through life in America. He thought he could encourage and motivate them to fight back and to not let the white people make them scared.

The North Star also strongly supported women's rights. They had a motto that read, "RIGHT IS OF NO SEX--TRUTH IS OF NO COLOR--GOD IS THE FATHER OF US ALL, AND ALL WE ARE BRETHREN."

The paper ended in 1851 due to it not bringing in enough money for Douglass to keep in running. He merged the paper with the Liberty Party Paper which was run by Gerrit Smith, another avid abolitionist. 

Douglass also owned two additional newspapers that he started after he let The North Star go, Frederick Douglass' Paper (1851-1860) and New National Era (1870-1874). 

Douglass died a few years later on February 20, 1895 from a heart attack at age 77. He died at his home in Cedar Hill. He is currently buried at Mt. Hope Cemetery in Rochester, NY. 

They Won't Forget Reaction

 This movie was a lot crazier than I thought. Since it was a black and white film it gave the impression that it would be boring and educational. However, I was shocked at the outcome and actually really enjoyed watching it. I was drawn to the plot the entire time just waiting to see what would happen next. 

The movie had a lot of good points about the position of the press during major events such as a murder. The big thing for me was seeing the press actually work with the cops while they were investigating to be the first ones to get the inside story. That came as a surprise to me because it made the cops look corrupt and taking bribes from a journalist. 

I liked the message that it was trying to send. It was interesting to see the inner workings of what goes on when a crime is committed. I liked hearing all the banter and seeing the police trying to figure out who did it and with what evidence. The part that I didn't like was when the detectives stormed into Mrs. Hales house and took a picture on her nightstand and used it as evidence. Taking her personal property and giving out to the public was a major invasion of privacy. 

It also shows the power of the media and how it really influences the way people think. The reporters were trying to cause a frenzy. They would publish untrue things loosely based on actual facts to try and get people against Mr. Hale. This to me symbolized yellow journalism because they were only trying to attract more readers with their headlines, not necessarily print the truth. 

Overall I really enjoyed watching this movie. I have never seen a full black and white movie before and I think it was really cool to see the difference between movies then and now. I also liked how they really emphasized the purpose of the media and how they are able to get involved in town news and crank out stories about something as crazy as a murder. 

Why I Chose Journalism

I have always loved reading and writing. Even as a kid I was always more interested in English rather than math or science. My mom is a reading and writing teacher so I think she had something to do with it but I genuinely enjoy writing. 

I didn't know what I wanted to study in college until the week before moving in. I was going back and forth and then finally landed on journalism. I got into reading books over the summer and really liked the idea of writing my own book. I was reading books from authors like Sylvia Plath and Patti Smith and getting a lot of inspiration from them.

From reading I got a lot of motive to start writing my own books. I just didn't know what to write about because there were so many different things I was interested in.

I realized that writing a book was a lot of work and I wasn't really ready to jump into all that, so I thought about where else I could write. Journalism came to my mind right away. I had a subscription to Vogue and would read it all the time when I got a new issue.

Reading Vogue Magazine was the perfect way for me to see the style of writing they were putting into their issues as well as what types topics they were writing about 

I figured out then that that was what I wanted to do. I want to write articles not a book about things that I am interested in. I would love to do pieces on fashion, home trends, lifestyle articles and maybe even some book reviews. I want to write about so many things that could fall under the category of fashion and all things that I am interested in talking about. 

As of now I really hope to get a job for a magazine or possibly an online blog source. I want to be able to travel around as well as writing for my publisher about new trends and styles that are in. I want to be able to inspire people to try new things through my writing and maybe even have something that is specific to my writing style that readers like. 

The end goal here is to not be tied down to writing about just one topic. I want to have a broad spectrum and be able to write a piece about any new or old trends that are surfacing. 

Institutions & Publications: The San Francisco Examiner and New York Journal

The San Francisco Examiner has been a trusted news source since 1863. The story of this newspaper is actually quite interesting. It all started after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. The Examiner used to be a democratic paper that was pro slavery and anti-Lincoln.  The newspaper offices were destroyed by a pro Lincoln mob after his death.

After this destruction, the newspaper was changed to The Daily Examiner in 1865. It switched to a very republican view with no slavery ties and got rid of the anti- Lincoln ideologies. The paper included worldwide news as well as local and used sensational titles to draw people into the stories. The Examiner became an afternoon paper when they made a deal with The Chronicle, who published the morning paper. The Examiner has won two Pulitzer Prizes in its time and has grown to have an audience of around 500,000 daily readers.

The paper was owned by William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951)who was a big time businessman and today is known for his lead role in yellow journalism. Hearst was born in 1863 and had always dreamed of making it big in the newspaper industry. His father, George Hearst, was the owner of the San Francisco Examiner prior to William and he was able to convince his father to let him take it over.

By the age of 24 he was able to turn the struggling newspaper around. He was able to hire famous writers such as Mark Twain and Jack London to write columns for the paper. 

Within three years Hearst was able to gain a profit from the paper and was cranking out around 55,000 papers daily. The Examiner still exists to this day and they continue to publish daily papers in print and online. 

Hearst died on August 14, 1951. The Hearst Cooperation held onto the Examiner until 2004 in which they sold it to the Fang Family. Since then it has been sold a couple more times and is now owned by  Clint Reilly Communications.

The New York Journal was Hearst's other newspaper that he owned. He used this Paper to continuously compete with New York World. The New York World was his inspiration to buy the San Francisco Examiner so he was thrilled to finally be on the same level.He bought this Paper in 1895 and would use this paper to compete with New York World in hopes to be the most read paper throughout the city.

 He used exaggerated titles, colorful cartoons, and sensationalistic and bias stories filled with lies that made people want to keep buying and reading the paper. This was the first example of yellow journalism; journalism that is based upon sensationalism and crude exaggeration. 

We see which became a style of reporting because of Hearst and his tactics. Each paper would keep creating more exaggerated headlines that they weren't even telling a true story anymore, just doing anything they could do get people to read their paper.

He copied the cartoon of the yellow boy that was in the New York World and even hired the same artist to do the job. This cartoon became known as "the yellow kid" and became the staples of yellow journalism. Hearst was really interested in the Spanish-American war and would constantly put out articles bullying the government to declare war. When the government ignored these stories, Hearst would get even more rude and persuasive to get them involved. 

https://www.sfexaminer.com/site/about.html

https://www.pbs.org/crucible/journalism.html

https://spartacus-educational.com/USAnyjournal.htm

https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/william-randolph-hearst