EOTO #3 Journalism Heroes

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Shock and Awe Movie Review

Shock and Awe is a movie that stresses the importance that investigative journalism has, and the need for journalists to report the truth about people and organizations in power. While also providing an entertaining history lesson behind the start of the United States' war with Iraq.

This movie focuses on the United States' invasion of Iraq, following the attack on the World Trade Center, and how a group of journalists from the Knight-Ridder news service are skeptical about George W. Bush's claims regarding the reasons behind this planned invasion. The journalists were questioning the President's claims that Saddam Hussein has weapons that can threaten the United States.

The reporters from the Knight-Ridder hear reports and sources that claim that President Bush's administration is more focused on blaming the dictator of Iraq than finding the Al Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden. Following their sources, they get their information from the learn that Hussein had no involvement with the 9/11 attacks but that the White House is willing to use any excuse to attack Iraq.

With public opinion already swayed, the reporters at Knight-Ridder are fighting an uphill battle to print the truth, with much more than their careers on the line. Shock and Awe gives great insight into the dangers that unchecked authority can have, and the importance for journalist to seek the truth, and fulfill their duty in the Watchdog role.

This movie did a great job of portraying the struggles the characters have to go through in order to get the truth out. You are able to see their journey and feel frustrated every time they run into a roadblock. If you go into the movie without knowing the history behind the Iraq War, then every time new information is uncovered is shocking and really harmers in the point of how media can control the public's perspective.

While the movie gave a great insight into the fundamental role journalists play when it comes to reporting the truth, this movie did have some flaws. The main issue was that the movie felt very melodramatic, while I understand the importance of keeping the audience engaged, at times, it went a little overboard.

This led to some scenes and dialogue, and characters feeling out of place. I feel that if the writing took a more down-to-earth approach and did not overly rely on creating dramatic scenes with the sole intention of artificially creating an emotional response, the movie would be a lot better off.

Despite these flaws, the movie does give a more realistic depiction of what investigative journalism looks like. The story depicted in Shock and Awe is an important one to tell, especially in an age where more and more news sites have lost sight of what it means to be an investigative journalist. If you are looking for a movie that goes into the history of the United States' invasion of Iraq, and what went on behind the scenes that led to this event, this movie is worth watching.

EOTO #2 Reaction Post

During this round of presentations, the topic that I found extremely interesting to learn about is the history of book reviews. As someone who enjoys reading book reviews are usually a deciding factor for me for if I want to spend time and money on a book. So learning how book reviewing originated was not only very informative, but also an extremely interesting topic for me.

The first thing to know before learning about the history of book reviewing is what a book review is. A book review is a summary, not a commentary. A book review should be a critical evaluation of the book that should take into account the strengths and weaknesses of the author as well as the reviewer's own personal opinion.

The guide for boo reviewing has changed a lot since it's early days. By 1920, the use of bylines became a standard practice, as well as editors recruiting more outside contributors. However, the books-as-news mentality still stayed and was the guiding mentality for how books should be reviewed.

The first book review appeared in the New York Times in 1896 and was a review of Sir George Tressady by Mary Augusta Ward. In the early days, books were seen as a form of news. However J. Donald Adams changed the way we think about books.

J. Donald Adams has a long career working in the publishing industry. He worked for multiple news companies before eventually working as an assistant editor for the New York Times's The Book Review in 1924. He held this position until 1943 and later became the columnist for Speaking of Books, which was a weekly that contributed to The New York Times' The Book Review. During his time as a columnist, he contributed over nine hundred essays. He made reviews more opinionated and expanded the coverage of books. 

Image of John Leonard

John Leonard became the executive editor of The Times Book Review in 1971. As he continued his career as a book reviewer, he also championed women's literature. He was also the first critic to review works from Nobel Prize winners. Leonard did a lot for the book reviewing field, and during his career, he was able to bring in new reviewers.

Today, book reviews are a staple in our society, with reviews sometimes being the deciding factor if a person decides to read a book or not. Reviews can hold a lot of power a sway the sales of books. With the creation of sites such as Goodreads and BookBub it is easier than it has ever been for people to share their own personal reviews of a book and read the reviews of others.

With how widespread book reviews have become, it is important for people to understand what a book review is supposed to be. With more and more people contributing to book reviewing, it is easier than ever for people to share their opinions. With this, people who read book reviews should be able to know the difference between someone's opinion and a general critique of the work.

EOTO #2

Crime reporting in journalism has been around since the start of journalism. In the early days, crime reporting primarily focused on property crimes and minor offenses. This was due in part to the fact that early newspapers were more on people-centered stories. It was not until publishers realized how profitable sensationalism could be that the focus shifted to more serious crimes.

While the history of crime reporting is deeply entangled in sensationalism, there are some who used crime reporting to bring to light injustices in the country, especially for racial violence that was taking place in America. Some of the reporters who used crime reporting for good were Moses Newson and Simeon Booker, Ida B. Wells, Nellie Bly, and Edna Buchanan.

Image of Moses Newson and Simeon Booker

Moses Newson and Simeon Booker were not crime reports as they originally worked on bringing attention to racial issues in America. They were both assigned to cover the story of Emmett Till. Till was a young boy who was killed by lynching for supposedly whistling at a white woman. The men responsible for his death were found not guilty but later admitted to being involved in Emmett's death. 

Booker attended Emmett's funeral and took the famous image titled "Till in the Coffin". This story helped bring to light the violence racial issues are bringing to America and the need to act.

Ida B. Wells was an African American journalist, and she focused on lynchings that happened in America. She eventually published a report known as A Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynchings in the United States, 1892-1893-1894. This publication provided a statistical record of lynchings in the United States.

Nellie Bly was an investigative journalist, and she focused on many topics throughout her career. Some of her most memorable work, however, involved crime reporting. During her career, she exposed the malpractices that took place in asylums. Due to her coverage of the abuse that took place in American asylums this led the Supreme Court to start investigating mental institutions. 

Image of Nellie Bly

She also covered New York's baby black market and her interactions with dealers and mothers looking to sell their children in an article titled "Nellie Bly Buys a Baby". Bly contributed a lot to journalism and brought attention to injustices that took place in America.

There are many problems with crime reporting, as it can often be used to sway public opinion and mess with the criminal justice process. However, it is important to keep in mind how crime reporting can be used in positive ways. Many incredible people have used crime reporting to bring attention to social issues.

Today, crime reporting has become engraved into our society. News networks oftentimes mainly focus on crimes. There are also people who solely focus on reporting on violent crimes; this practice has become known as true crime. Just like in the early days of journalism, people are still interested in crime, and with the increase in interest, new ways to report on crime have appeared. 

Despite the harm sensationalism has done to crime reporting, there is still an active audience, and it is important for people to be able to distinguish between crime reporting that is focused on grabbing their attention and crime reporting that is focused on giving out facts. 

The Five Star Final Review

The Five Star Final is a 1931 American drama about the harm sensational journalism can cause. The movie follows the perspectives of different characters and how their lives are changed due to shady journalistic practices. When the Gazelle decides to revive the scandal of a woman who shot her lover over 20 years ago, we witness the effects this has on her life and the harm this action caused for the people around her.

Despite being hindered by the technology at the time, this movie delivers a solid story and a clear message about the harm that sensationalism in journalism can cause to people.

A lot of the imagery used in this movie also holds up very well. The final shots of the newspaper being swept up with the muck on the street help solidify the ideas this movie was trying to portray while also being a great shot to end on. Another example of great imagery in this movie is the reoccurrence of Joseph Randall washing his hands, showing how he wants to clean himself of all the guilt he feels for his participation in the paper's unethical practices.

The acting was also done well; you are able to clearly understand the feelings of each character and their motivations. The inner struggles the main character goes through in order to come to his decision to leave the Gazelle was entertaining to watch and a well-deserved moment of triumph for not only Joseph Randall but the audience as well.

Despite what this movie did right, there were still a few flaws that hindered the movie. Some scenes were a little too long and could have been cut to help the pacing of the story. The beginning especially suffers from this, as the pacing is incredibly slow, and it takes until the halfway point for the plot and action of the movie to kick in. Cutting some of these scenes down could help with this problem and get the audience to the main meat of the story quicker. 

Some characters also did not really need to be in the movie; their roles and actions could have been easily given to other characters, and this could have helped with the slow pacing in the beginning. Doing some research into this film uncovers that this movie was based on a play written by Louis Weitzenkorn also called Five Star Final. This could explain why some characters were in the movie when they did not impact the plot in any meaningful way and were only kept in to be more accurate to the original play. However, I believe that this was not the best course of action, and their scenes could have been better used to deepen the characters that were already established.

Despite some of the issues with this movie, it is still a very solid watch. The acting and message still hold up today and give great insight into how much of a problem sensationalism can be. If you are looking for an older movie to enjoy, then The Five Star Final is definitely one to watch.

EOTO #1 Reaction Post

Out of all the topics presented, the one that interested me the most was yellow journalism. I found it to be such an interesting topic because while we no longer use the term yellow journalism, it is still very prominent in modern society. Yellow journalism is just sensational journalism that focuses more on what can increase sales over the facts of a story. Today, we clearly see this tactic being used with click-bait headlines and very opinionated works.

Yellow journalism was started by Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World in 1883. He wanted to capitalize on sensationalism to help increase the sales of the New York World. He accomplished this by having pieces made that dealt with hot topics at the time and incorporating illustrations into his papers.

One of the most famous examples of yellow journalism is how the use of this practice helped start the Spanish-American War. The Main and American ship stationed in Cuba that blew up to what we now know the cause to be human error. However, at the time, the cause for the explosion was unknown, and many newspapers seized the opportunity to be able to sell more papers by blaming the destruction of the ship on Spain. While it was probably not the goal to cause a war, the opinionated pieces stirred up enough public outcry to cause America to get involved and join the war efforts.

Yellow journalism is still seen today and played a huge role in the developmental history of journalism. While it is not called yellow journalism anymore, the effects it has on swaying mass opinion are the same. This is why I found this topic to be so interesting as while it first appeared in 1883 its role in journalism has not weakened.

                                       

EOTO #1

William Llyod Garrison is an important figure in the journalism world. He was born on December 10th, 1805, and he grew up in Newburyport, Massachusetts. After his father faced unemployment, he abandoned his family in 1808. This caused Garrison to have to work hard in his early days to help bring an income to his household. It is reported that he took odd jobs of delivering wood and selling treats. He had to support his own education by age 11. However, just a few years later, at age 13, he became an apprentice to a printer and newspaper publisher.

His apprenticeship helped Garrison develop his skills when it came to print media. He worked for the Newburyport Herald, and during his time there, he wrote for this paper under a pseudonym. He was able to make several contributions to this paper, and by the end of his apprenticeship, he became the sole owner of the Newburyport Free Press.

During the 1820’s he became involved with the anti-slavery movement and rejected the views of the American Colonization Society and the gradualist views. For a while, he was a part of the American Colonization Society, but later publicly apologized for his evolvement after being able to talk to African Americans in Boston who were able to share their views with him.

Later, in 1829, Garrison worked with Benjamin Lundy

William Llyod Garrison

and created The Genius of the Universe, an anti-slavery newspaper. His knowledge and experience working as a publisher helped him improve the layout of The Genius of the Universe. While Garrison and Lundy worked on this print, they eventually got in trouble because of it. In the paper, there was a part called the Black List, which was a column devoted to reporting the barbarities of slavery. In one of those sections, Garrison exposed a Newburyport merchant who was engaged in the coastal slave trade.

Due to this, the merchant filed against both Lundy and Garrison and won. Garrison was forced to pay a $50 fine, which he refused to pay. His refusal to pay the fine caused the courts to sentence him to six months in jail however, he only spent seven weeks confined as an anti-slaver ally paid the fine for him. After this event, Garrison and Lundy parted ways.

Garrison later co-founded The Liberator, a weekly anti-slavery newspaper, through which he became widely known. This paper got him recognized as one of the most radical American anti-slavery advocates. The Liberator became widely successful, and benefactors of the paper paid to have subscriptions sent to state legislators.

Throughout his life, he created organizations and movements for the complete abolishment of slaver. He spoke up for women's rights, and due to his support for women to get involved in the anti-slaver movement, the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society was created. This society helped raise funds to support the Liberator and publish anti-slavery pamphlets.

After the abolishment of slaver, Garrison stepped down as the president of the American Anti-Slavery Society. He continued to participate in public reform movements and support the cause for civil rights for African Americans and the women’s suffrage movement.

Garrison died on May 24, 1879. He spent the last few years with his family and was buried next to his wife, Helen Elizabeth Benson. William Llyod Garrison died being known as one of the most radical opponents to slavery. He preached on moral character and stressed the importance of nonviolence. His contributions helped spread the anti-slavery sentiment, and the importance of The Liberator can not be overlooked in the anti-slavery movement.

Midterm Recap

So far, the JOU-1300-01 class has gone over the importance of journalism and the history it played in the colonies up until the 1980s. While the history of journalism is complex, with it going through multiple phases over the years, what interested me the most out of all the topics covered was the Penny Press Era.

This era started around 1833, when Benjamin Day released The Sun in New York City for only one penny at a time, where the average paper sold for six pennies. This marked a turning point; instead of the newspaper being for the wealthy, stories could be widespread and accessible to the masses. The reason for such a low price was the shift to more steam-powered printing. Day was able to see the potential in creating an affordable and simpler paper.


With the Penny Press Era came the rise of news empires, with the New York Herald being published by James Gordan Bennett in 1835. This paper focused on more local news while other papers at the time focused on reporting on major events. This act helped redefine the way journalism could be used and set up newspaper competition.

Another major player in the Penny Press Era was Horace Greeley, the publisher of the New York Tribune. The Tribune focused on rationalism instead of sensationalism like other penny papers at the time. Greeley published the New York Tribune in 1841 and saw great success.

The Penny Press Era was an important part of shaping modern journalism. With advancements in technology, half-tone photos were able to be printed onto newspapers, which sparked a whole new wave of journalism. While the importance of creating a cheap and available newspaper for the public can not be overlooked, this also led to the sensationalism of journalism.

With a wide appeal and reliance on the common people to continue to buy the paper, this led to publishers focusing on the next story and trying to catch the reader’s eye with headlines and pictures. This is still seen in modern days with the rise of clickbait titles and flashy images to get the reader’s attention. Despite these unintentional effects, the importance of the Penny Press Era can not be overlooked. This era helped make information more available during a time in which only the wealthy could afford to read the paper.

Why Am I Here?

 For the sake of transparency, I will be honest and say I am taking this class because I need 18 credits this semester to be able to graduate early. I am a psychology major and minoring in criminal justice, so taking a journalism class never crossed my mind before. Looking at the list of elective courses and seeing JOU-1300 there were a few reasons for why I decided to take this class. I want to improve my writing skills, I am very curious about journalism as a profession, and I just enjoy learning about topics that I do not have any previous knowledge about.

Being a good writer is an important skill regardless of your profession. Seeing as this class would focus heavily on written assignments, I believed it would be useful to help me, especially since I tended to avoid writing as much as possible for most of my life. The reason is that when I was younger I was diagnosed with dyslexia, which made writing, especially spelling, extremely difficult for me. This caused me to dislike writing as I struggled with it, however, as I got older I fell in love with reading which in turn helped me slightly improve my writing abilities. While I still heavily struggle in this area I do enjoy writing more than I used to, and I am hoping this class will help me further improve my writing skills and make me more confident in my writing abilities.

Another reason for me to decide to take this class is that I am curious about journalism's impact on American society. Journalism is an important profession that sometimes gets overlooked by the general public, so I am looking forward to learning about the history of journalism and the societal impacts it has. Seeing what separates a news site that has poor journalistic integrity compared to one that has ethics and standards is extremely important. With most news sites being heavily fueled by personal beliefs or opinions, it is important for any person to know what to look out for when they are looking for a news outlet to get updates on current events. I believe this class will help me be better at spotting what sources are influenced by opinion and which ones are committed to reporting the truth.

Finally, I just enjoy learning about topics that I don’t know anything about. When I saw that this class was available for me to take as an elective it was the most interesting one that was offered. I know next to nothing about journalism and I am genuinely curious to learn more about it, the history behind the career, the way the profession has evolved, and the importance journalism has in history sounds extremely interesting. I believe that gaining new knowledge about a new topic is important, as it can help with critical thinking skills, and help you gain a new perspective on something. I am genuinely interested to learn more about journalism and to see the different aspects journalism plays in our society.

While I do not plan to go into a journalism career I do believe that the knowledge I gain from this class will be useful to me and help me in the future. Not only that, this class will make me more well-informed about the current state of journalism, the impact it had in the past, and the current role it plays in today’s society. For those reasons that is why I decided to take JOU-1300 as an elective course this semester.