Newsies

"Extra! Extra! Read all about it!" This is a clique phrase heard in movies in order to alert that news is out and ready to be shared. Newsies, a film dedicated to highlight the lives of mid ninetieth century newsboys who went on strike to increase their pay. This began as a musical on Broadway and made its way to a Disney film. It did hold dramatized premises that did not really happen however, it got the message across to a group of people who were unaware of the history. 

I have been a musical theatre fan since I was very little. It is what influenced me to study journalism and continue to allow my voice to be heard. I have a special place in my heart for Newsies as it was a trip I took with my theatre to go see. I was even able to dance with some cast members before the show. At the time I did not realize the effect this musical would have on today's influx.

On July 20,1899, The strike of the Newsies began. Prices of newspapers increased by 10 cents and left newsboys, ages 18 and younger, having to sell more to make more. Newsboys would buy a stack of 100 newspapers for 50 cents and sell to the public a penny a paper. New York World and the New York Journal decided to raise the price and made the papers go from 50 cents to 60 cents. In order for the newsboys to continue making their salary they had to work harder in order to sell an extra 10 papers. Selling every paper was a must because giving papers back was not an option. This seemed impossible for the boys since they were already having trouble selling papers and so they went on their second strike, the Newsboys Strike of 1899.

The first strike happened during the Spanish- American War for roughly the same reason, price increase. There was less of an issue selling papers due to the war going on. Everyone wanted to read about what was going on. However, post war did not have the same effect. The boys got together from all parts of the city and went on strike. They demanded that the prices of stacks decreased back to the original 50 cents and they would not sell papers until that happened.  Newsies alerted the public and asked them to not buy from William Randolph Hearst or Joseph Pulitzer. The strike became dangerous and some even faced time in jail due to fighting. After many days of fighting and the Newspaper Companies were seeing a loss in profit they decided to lower the cost back to 50 cents and agreed to take the unsold papers back. 

This was a pinnacle to history because it was the introduction of urban child-welfare practices and let to the improvement of newsboys' quality of life. They brought child labor to light and encouraged a child labor reform. 

Press & War

Today, we hear a quick ding or feel a vibrating buzz coming from our pockets and we are all rapidly altered about what is going on in the war between Russia and Ukraine. This quick alert directing us to Twitter was not introduced until very recently. It is very difficult in media to not find the press interjecting in war. What was once week long updates is now available in seconds. This is the only thing that has changed when it comes to Press and War. 

Control through Media

Propaganda consists of the planned use of any form of public of mass-produced communication designed to affect the minds and emotions of a given group for a specific purpose, whether military, economic, or political.

-Linebarger, Paul Myron Anthony

When looking back on past wars or even the one going on today, we try and decipher who is right and who is wrong. It seems simple to figure out with google searches or back then, posters, radio and reading newspapers because of propaganda. The press has flooded our information sources with different political cartoons and try to sway public opinions. The press uses strategic tactics to not only inform us but to also gatekeeper. The media has the power to choose what they want the world to know. It is a system of blockage. Not all of the truths are let out into the world only the ones media wants the world to know.

World War II

War reporting originated in 1939 during World War II. In the United States broadcast was covering the war in Europe starting in 1939. By 1941 the United States was facing conflict due to their involvement with reporting. Wartime journalists were a part of three different categories, the wire services, stringers and correspondents, and free lance writers. They were sent in uniform to war to report the truths but were not allowed to fight. They had the opportunity to interview soldiers and were able to use the press to give updates on the wars. This was the first time real journalists got to experience war in front of them and report about it.  

Vietnam War

The Vietnam war, in the 70's was one of the biggest controversial events in the eyes of president and war. This war started anti- war movements. It was also the first war on television due to the rise in technology and broadcast. This was the first time citizens were able to watch war from their homes. Journalists covering the war were put in danger. Many died and having it broadcasted showed. This was the first time people watched real causalities and the brutalities of war.

EOTO 4: Connie Chung

 

    Connie Chung is an American broadcast journalist . She was born on August 20th, 1946 as Constance Yu-Hwa Chung in Washington D.C. and had changed her name to Connie. She was born into a family of 10 siblings by her parents William Ling Chung and Margaret Ma. Her father, William Ling Chung, was an Intelligence officer in the Chinese Nationalist Government. Unfortunately, during wartime 5 of her siblings had tragically passed away. After graduating high school she went on to study journalism and received her Bachelor's Degree at the University of Maryland in 1969. While studying journalism she interned with a congressman who was a retired journalists. He inspired Chung to get into broadcast.

Journalism Career

  Her career in journalism began at Washington's WTTG-TV not long after graduating from school. She worked there until 1972 and worked her way up to being a reporter. She was hired by CBS News to work as a Washington-based correspondent in 1972. It was during her time at CBS that she scored her first large scale interview and her career really took off. She interviewed President Nixon

 during the Watergate scandal and became a force to be recon with. Soon after, she moved to L.A. and worked for KCBS as a the lead news anchor. Seven years later Chung became one of the most popular journalists in TV news with her work at NBC. Her time in the news world seemed to come to a halt as she moved on to produce different television programs. She first launched a program titled Face to Face with Connie Chung. This was a popular program however, it was criticized for being more
entertaining than informative.Then in June of 1993, CBS announced she would be the co-anchor of their nightly news broadcast. This only lasted two years before Chung asked to be let out of her contract. At the same time, she was working on a magazine titled, Eye to Eye with Connie Chung and even attempted to launch her one news program. These project did end up being a flop and so in 1997 she anchored the Friday night newsmagazine 20/20 for ABC. In 2002 Chung took a job with CNN. This only lasted a year before they dropped her, prompting her to take a break from Television. By 2006 she was ready to get back in the game and with her husband, Maury Povich, a popular television host, they started a show titled, Weekends with Maury & Connie. This show was canceled after six months due to low ratings. From there, Chung took a break all together from television.

Accomplishments

Although Chung took on many different projects ending in success and failure, she accomplished a lot during her career. She made her mark for woman in broadcast in America. She was one of the first female reporters on national television in the United States and broke down the gender barriers of the late 20th century. She was also the first Asian American anchor of a major network newscast. She has also gone on to receive multiple different awards. These include the George Foster Peabody Award,
The Amnesty International Human Rights Award, and has been awarded three Emmy Awards. Two of her Emmy's being, Best Interview/ Interviewer. Although her tv career ended in 2006 she is a huge icon in American Broadcast. She has paved the way for many female broadcasters and has made her mark on the world.

EOTO 3: Wire Services

    Have you ever wondered how different news outlets can have the same topic and facts but they each have their own twist on it? This is because of Wire Services.

    Wire services were established in the United States during the mid-nineteenth century as a way to gather and distribute news for local newspapers. It provided different news outlets their news reports. This was a more organized and efficient way to gather news. In most cases when an outlet receives their story from wire services, there is little to no edits needed to be made. Wire services have evolved and are often referred to as news agencies, news cooperatives, and cut down simpler as news services. From the 1860s to the 1880s, regional wire services were prominent but after the 1880s it cemented itself into a national system due to the efficiency within news collection. However, as time went on it became more relevant.

Stepping Stones

    Technology is constantly evolving, wire services began as a way to spread news through telegraphy. In the late 1940s tele typesetter machines were introduced. This allowed perforated paper tape stories be fed into typesetting or Linotype machines and did not need to be done with human operators.  In using tele typesetters it eliminated human labor making story production even more efficient. 

    After time, telegraphs turned to newspapers and newspapers turned to magazines. Today we can receive news instantly through computers and phones with articles, videos, photographs and other types media sharing outlets.

       Notable Publications

    Two of the most famous wire services are The Associated Press and Reuters. The Associated press is the oldest and largest 24 hour wire service. It began in 1820 and its main purpose at the time was to report news to New York form Europe. In 1848, The Associated Press took off after incorporating the telegraph as their way of spreading news. They pride themselves with keeping up with technology advances and in 1935 they created Wirephoto. This was the first wire service for photographers. 

    Reuters News Agency was created by Paul Reuter in 1851 and has become one of biggest news agencies with around 2,500 journalists and 600 photographers. There are also about 200 locations worldwide. It started as a transmission of stock market quotes between London and Paris. Soon later, it extended its services to many different European countries.

The Evolution

    By the 20th century news was available to the public through a variety of different ways. News was able to be shared through many other platforms due to the use of satellite service and the internet. 

    The Associated Press and United Press International continue to make advances in their services. Now customized services are offered in order to meet individual stations needs. The news services have received backlash for this because of pricing rates have increased. In almost all cases of updates and advances more money is needed. Although there is and will be backlash, this is not stopping the services to continue expanding. The United Press International is currently looking into adding a video news service.

    As time goes on and my career in journalism progresses, I am interested in waiting news wire services evolving and what more they can do.

Collateral Murder

    On July 12, 2007, two U.S. AH-64 Apache helicopters in Al-Amin al-Thaniyah, New Baghdad conducted an attack known as the Baghdad airstrike after the Iraq War during the Iraqi insurgency. 

    In 2010, videos of the attack were released on WikiLeaks by U.S. Army soldier Chelsea Manning, and was spread worldwide.  The video shows, what was said to be classified, 39 minutes of gunshot footage. Manning in 2013 testified that the video was not classified. The video showed the crew killing several civilians including two Reuters journalists and laughing at the casualties.

    WikiLeaks is an international company that has created a space for news leaks and classified media to be posted anonymously. Creator of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange became responsible for the videos and was tracked down by the U.S. Government. He is not a U.S. citizen and so the government has pinned false accusations on him to keep him locked up in London, England. Assange has been labeled a whistleblower.

    Reuters demanded an investigation after the attack and losing Namir Noor-Eldeen, Iraq war photographer for Reuters, and journalist Saeed Chmagh. Authorities of the U.S. military saw the murders to be the Law of Armed Conflict and their rules of engagement.

   While watching the videos in class the silence spoke for itself. In the room you were able to hear a pin drop. What happened was not okay. The U.S. military has claimed the camera Namir was holding look like a gun. Through the video you are able to tell that this did not look like a gun and the attack was unprovoked. This was a collateral murder and the actions are indescribably wrong.

    Comments like, "Light em all up!", "We got one guy crawling around down there, but uh, you know, we got, definitely got something. We are shooting some more." and "Oh yeah, look at those dead bastards. Nice shoot'n." are not comments that are okay to say during any military attack. It is ultimately embarrassing for the U.S.

  Power can lead to greatness or less than. A concept that has been around for forever. We spend a lot of time praising our U.S. Military however, it is also important to keep them in check when the power comes to their head. The bottom line is, those military men were not playing a video game. Their button presses have real life consequences and real lives were lost due to the carless acts. 

    

Goodnight, & Good luck

    The job of a journalist has always been to "Never Stay Silent". You must always spread the truth.

  The 2005 award winning film, "Goodbye, & Good Luck" was written by George Clooney and Grant Heslov and stars David Strathairn, Patricia Clarkson, George Clooney, Jeff Daniels, Robert Downey Jr, Frank Langella, Tate Donovan, and Ray Wise. In the film, we are taught the truths about working as a journalist in the 1950's and battling news and media. A time when the world looked completely different from today but working journalists still had the same key objectives, to spread the truth no matter the cost. That is what this film was about; spreading truth in a time when that was not very easy due to the cautions of freedom of press.  It was during the time of the Red Scare and the Cold War. A period where the public was being told to fear the potential rise of communists and propaganda. 

  In the film we see the early days of broadcast and conflicts between Edward R. Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy. Due to rising communism and anti- communist groups, citizens were becoming paranoid. As Senator, McCarthy was exploiting their fears, news broadcaster for CBS, Murrow, and producer, Fred W. Friendly, decide to rightfully take a stand.
Through trying to  expose Senator McCarthy for his bullying tactics, they faced many consequences. The term that we now know today as "The Chilling Effect" was demonstrated through Senator McCarthy efforts to deflect what the press was sharing.  There were numerous times of doubt and regret for Murrow and Friendly but the job of a journalist will always be spread the truth and knew the outcome would be more rewarding. They stuck by this even when others were apprehensive about sharing the truth.

As an aspiring journalist, I find it necessary to be exposed to films like these. In an entertaining way, it showed the events of a major event for the history of journalism and highlighted the significance of spreading truth that I hope to one day share. There were a lot of key take aways from the film that has led me to reflect upon what I aspire to accomplish in the future. Spreading truth as a journalist is not only important, it's crucial and something that was shown through the film. A journalists fear cannot prevent a message from coming across. Being able to broadcast what is happening in real time and exercising the first amendment needs to happen to keep major powers in check and communities in the know. 

This film will be something I reflect upon a lot throughout my career. Watching the doubts and battles even the most confidence journalists experience will help me break through any and all obstacles in order to produce the greatest truths. As demonstrated through the film keeping your emotions separate is a key part to journalism.

EOTO 2: William Lloyd Garrison

     While preparing for EOTO 2 I wanted to capture a journalist who believed in making a change so strongly that they went to great lengths. It is important to me as a writer to spread the messages that are important to me. Typically when believing in something someone else may not believe in it as well. In order to make a change you must open the world to alternative ideas.

    William Lloyd Garrison did just that during his career in Journalism. When his reputation was on the line or he was getting too old to work and needed to turn to retirement he did not give up spreading his message and today he has an influence on journalists and the world around us.    Garrison had a successful career in journalism. In 128 he was an editor for both the National Philanthropist Newspaper in Boston and the Journal of the times in Bennington, Vermont. Both of these papers were dedicated to moral reform. In 1829 he edited the Genius of Universal Emancipation with Benjamin Lundy. And founded the Liberator in 1831 which became the most radical of the Anti-Slavery journals at the time. He made strides to enhance equality.

    William Lloyd Garrison was born on December 10, 1805 in Newburyport, Massachusetts. When Garrison was three-years-old his father, a merchant sailor, abandoned him and his siblings. His mother was a devoted Baptist and raised him in poverty. Due to his mother's religious beliefs, Garrison grew up surrounded by christianity and at age 8 he lived with a Baptist deacon. He worked as a shoemaker at the time however it was not his calling because of the physical labor involved. At 13 he was an apprentice for a printer and newspaper publisher and knew he had found his life's work.  At age 25 he then joined the abolitionist movement.

     Four years after the Liberators creation, Garrison renounced church and state to embrace the Doctrines of Christian "perfectionism". This combined abolition and women's rights through his writing. Between 1840 and the American Civil Was his strides against slavery increased. Garrison became so passionate about change that his influence in society went down. As less and less people stopped supporting him he only became more radical. 

    Because of his outlet of the Liberator Garrison was able to denounce The Compromise of 1850, the Kansas- Nebraska Act, and the Deed Scott Decision. He even supported Abraham Lincoln and welcomed the Emancipation Proclamation.

    Once Garrison retired he continued his work on equality and pressed for women's suffrage and free trade .

Russian author Leo Tolstoy was inspired by Garrison's writing along with Adin Ballou because of their focus on Christianity which aligned with Tolstroy's ideology. Tolstroy even went on to publish a short biography of Garrison in 1904. He even referenced Garrison within his own work.

Today, there is a memorial statue of Garrison in Boston. In 2005, Garrison's descendants gathered in Boston to honor his 200th birthday. Garrison continues to be a staple for journalists and making a change.