EOTO #3: Celebrity Journalism

 Celebrity gossip is something that reaches the mouths of every individual in America. It's a known fact that it's irresistible to not talk about. I myself find it interesting to talk about celebrities and the drama that may revolve around their lives. If we think back to the beginning of celebrity gossip, its very different from where it is today.

I think we can trace celebrity gossip back to the first interview with a potential celebrity. The first interview with a president was back when John Quincy Adams was in office. He was interviewed by Anne Newport Royall, who is considered to be the first female journalist, about his plans for his term. 

He at first refused to meet with her because he heard she was a woman reporter and didn't think she could handle interviewing a president. 

When he refused to meet with her she overheard that he liked to swim in the river in the morning without clothes on. Royall went over to the White House and waited for him to go swim in the river and then trapped him when he was in the water and sat on his clothes. She didn't leave until he answered her questions. This was in 1817. 

We can go back even further into the late 1700's in London. There was a writer named James Boswell who wrote over 70 columns under the title "The Hypochondriac" that were published in London Magazine from 1777-1783. This was a gossip column about town news and public happenings that were going around. He even wrote about public hangings in the town to keep people informed.

During the Regency era newspapers and pamphlets were dedicating sections to local gossip and juicy stories going around. The hit Netflix show "Bridgerton" represents this in a very real way. There was a weekly pamphlet on the show that had everyones drama printed in it for the whole town to read like a fiction book; except it was actually peoples lives and their business. 

A popular magazine published in 1893 called The Sketch magazine would publish articles about gossip around the royal family and high class members of society. This was the start of gossip in print over in England but not yet in America.

 The start of American gossip doesn't come until 1911 when the first gossip magazine was published. Photoplay was a magazine filled with articles about the inside lives of celebrities. 

The word celebrity was changing in America at this time. It went from politicians and soldiers to actors and baseball players. No one wanted to read about soldiers after war anymore but rather if Marylin Monroe was using a specific makeup brand. Photoplay was filled with articles to this nature.

It was the first magazine to be exclusively celebrity-based news. This was also the start of interviewers asking celebrities about their personal lives. It was always impolite to bombard someone about what was going on in their regular, day to day life. 

When celebrity magazines came out people just wanted to know what they were like when they weren't acting. Fanbases grew from magazines like this because they felt more connected to the celebrity by learning what foods they eat in the morning and how they prefer to line up their records. 

Radio and TV also contributed to this majorly. Since these two inventions made it easy to view shows and movies there were more and more stars that were emerging. People became fans because they always saw this person acting on TV. It became a thing where celebrities were more than just people they were like heroes. With film came publicity. 

Today there are so many different ways we can find out about celebrity gossip. The most popular that can be found in almost any grocery store, gas station, or hair salon is People magazine. The first issue was published in 1974 and has been reporting on the lives of celebrities ever since. 

People magazine averaged around 80 million readers in 2022 at their highest. 

Other tabloids have since emerged and even different forms. There are TV shows such as "Access Hollywood" and "Entertainment Tonight" that also report and talk exclusively about drama in the world of celebrities. 

Social media today has had a huge impact on the limits people have with celebrates. You can now interact with your favorite singer by leaving a comment on their Instagram and tagging them in a Tik Tok video. 

We have a lot more interaction now than we did back in 1911 by reading a Photoplay magazine. Our media has been infiltrated by celebrity gossip news. It has taken over our social media in every way and has become a part of our lives. No person can go one day without hearing about something happening in Hollywood or about a new singer who just had a baby. 

Celebrity gossip is a good way to stay informed about our favorite stars but it gets to a point where we have to realize they are people too. It would be awful to find your secrets splashed across the front page of a magazine read by millions. 

Celebrity journalism has made its impact on the world and will now forever be apart of our everyday media. 

https://boundarystones.weta.org/2020/08/03/anne-royall-and-presidents-clothes

https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2016/jan/26/photoplay-magazine-hollywood-film-studios-stars-celebrity-culture

https://www.shondaland.com/inspire/shondaland-bridgerton-behind-the-scenes/a39576200/the-history-of-gossip-columns/

https://www.jstor.org/stable/25154085?seq=6

EOTO #2 Reflection: Nellie Bly

I really enjoyed listening to all the presentations this round. I was able to learn so much about so many different topics and can connect that to the whole timeline of media we are learning about. I was very impressed with everyones topics and the way they presented them. The presentation that really stuck out to me was the women reporters. I was able to learn about so many different women who contributed to the era of radio and made it into the innovation that it was. 

I was really interested to hear how all these different women were able to coin a piece of the radio and the press and make it their thing. I think its interesting to see how they were able to contribute to such a new and upcoming invention and what they did to get to that position. 

The one reporter that really stuck to me that we heard about was Nellie Bly (1854-1922). She was known for going on undercover investigations and exposing inside jobs. Her first job was at the Pittsburgh Dispatch after she wrote a letter to the editor. He liked it so much he offered her a job as a columnist.

However she didn't want to just write about women issues so she turned to exposing unfair working conditions in a factory she pretended to work at. She exposed the unfair wages, unsafe working conditions, and long hours that she experienced. Her boss got worried people would start getting upset with her column so he switched Bly to a society writer. 

In 1886, Bly was assigned a piece by the New York World about a mental asylum. It was an insiders scoop as to how the patients were being treated and what the conditions were inside the institution. She admitted herself to the hospital and acted crazy to be able to get into the place without any suspicious looks. It was called Ten Days in the Madhouse and was a six part series on her experiences. Her findings had shocked the public and quickly made her one of the most famous journalists to exist. 

Her style of reporting became a new sensation that many journalists after her would follow. They called it investigative journalism because of the very forward, hands-on approach she used. 

Bly also reach record heights in her career in 1889 when she traveled the world after being inspired by the book Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne. Bly took the trip and set the world record for completing it in 76 days. The New York World would publish updates about her travels daily and followed her story.

She didn't hold the record for long but it got her the recognition and advanced her credibility in her journalism career. Bly continued to expose the secrets that were hidden in New York City. Things like corruption of the government, employment, and the black market for buying a child.

Bly continued to report on major happenings in America up until she came into possession of her husbands iron clad oil company and American Steel Barrel Company. While in charge of the businesses she was able to paten many inventions relating to the oil company. A lot of these inventions are still in use today and have improved the quality of oil manufacturing. 

Bly also focused on the treatment of her employees. She made sure they were being paid and not overworked. She gave them healthcare benefits and facilities for them to use. Unfortunately, she ran out of funds and both of the businesses went under. 

In her later years, Bly returned to journalism and worked for the New York Evening Journal in 1911. She continued to cover major events such as WWI in Europe and the Women's Rights Movement. She was the first women to go to Europe and report from the trenches of the war. She was constantly putting herself right in the mix of an event. Bly is considered to be one of the best reporters America has ever seen and has really set the stage for what is expected of journalists today. 

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/nellie-bly-0

https://wams.nyhistory.org/modernizing-america/modern-womanhood/nellie-bly/

EOTO #2: William Lloyd Garrison

 William Lloyd Garrison, born December 10, 1805 in Newburyport, Massachusetts, would grow up to be one of the main people to help in freeing the slaves. Garrison dedicated his entire life to the abolitionist movement and didn't rest until he saw change. He worked along side Frederick Douglass, Lucy Stone, and Wendell Philips.

Garrison grew up in a poor household. His dad, a sailor merchant, left his family when he was only age three. His mom wanted to provide the best she could so she sent Garrison away to live with a baptist deacon. 

Garrison spent five years with the deacon where he went through a very limited education. He was reunited with his mom and siblings when he was eight years old. 

Immediately after his return home Garrison started to look for work. He became an apprentice to a shoe maker and then a cabinet maker. Both of these jobs were too much for eight year old Garrison so he was forced to look for something else. 

When he was around 13 years old he was offered a job at a local newspaper. He was offered a writers and editors position at the Newburyport Herald which would last as a seven year apprenticeship. Having an editor only being 13 was very unorthodox but Ephraim P. Allen, printer of the paper, was very willing to give him a chance. 

After Garrison landed the Herald he continuously looked for other papers he could write for. He became obsessed with the topic of abolition and would only work for papers that centered around it. 

When he was 20 years old he bought The Newburyport Essex Courant and shortly after moved to Boston and became editor of the National Philanthropist, a newspaper that focused a lot of their stories on temperance and reform. 

Garrison created his most famous piece of work, The Liberator shortly after his move to Boston. The first issue came out on January 1, 1831 and would last for 35 years. It was an anti-slavery paper and would publish anything and everything to do with the issues of slavery. 

Garrison worked along with Issac Knapp and together they created this abolitionist paper. The Liberator was a weekly paper and never missed a single week when putting out the paper. They didn't have a wide audience, somewhere around 3,000 people, but the controversial articles they were publishing got the attention of a wide audience. He believed in non-violence and passive resistance to all slavery institutions. 

The Liberator was a very relevant paper during the civil war as well in which Garrison would publish articles persuading the North to secede before the war started to avoid a big fallout. When the war started Garrison stayed out and didn't support it until the Emancipation Proclamation. That was where he saw the change happening. 

Garrison was able to live long enough to witness the Emancipation and the 13th amendment come into effect. He was able to see what he worked for his entire life pay off. 

While running The Liberator he was also able to advocate another way. He founded two anti-slavery societies, New England Anti-Slavery Society and The American Anti-Slavery Society. 

Garrison is remembered for having a "fierce" opposition to slavery and for dedicating his life to be an abolitionist. He died on May 24, 1879 in Boston, Massachusetts. We remember him as one of the many leaders of the anti-slavery movement. 

https://www.hilbert.edu/social-justice-activists/william-lloyd-garrison

https://www.ushistory.org/us/28a.asp

https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/william-lloyd-garrison

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1561.html#:~:text=In%20the%20very%20first%20issue,.%22%20And%20Garrison%20was%20heard. 

https://www.nationalabolitionhalloffameandmuseum.org/william-lloyd-garrison.html