EOTO #2 Reflection on others EOTO'S

 

19thcentury.us

The 19th century journalism  

Reflections on others EOTO'S

By: Samantha Weiss

Arts and Entertainment Journalism

Starting around the 17th century this type of journalism was kind of revolutionary due to the fact that before entertainment there were just harsh realities of life.

Tes.com

Arts and Entertainment journalism

Entertainments and Arts journalism gave us a break from politics and let us dive into the fun of this world. 

This era of journalism started during the Penny Press era where the goal of journalism was to just sell papers no matter the cost. 

A good thing that this era of entertainment brought was during the Hollywood Era, around the 1920s. 

Fan Magazines came out with the behind the scenes of actors. 

We also had professional critics, and even rotten tomatoes. 

Rotten tomatoes gave an outlet for people to share their opinions on what they liked and didn't like about a movie or even a newspaper. 

I liked this topic that was talked about, because sometimes I forget that journalism can be more than politics. I also love that Rotten Tomatoes came out of this era of journalism. 

Fashion Journalism

Glam Observer

Fashion Magazine.

This era of journalism came out of the Renaissance in Europe. 

It originally started to give women an outlet so they could share their ideas of what fashion looks like and how it makes them feel. 

They had what was called a fashion plate this was engravings of fashion that showed what was in at that time. 

1794-1803 was the gallery of fashion which helped show what was new in the fashion world.

Fashion also started to include men as well with the Gentlemen's magazine fashion newsletter. This gave the idea and the feeling that fashion is for everyone. 

I also loved this topic because like I said sometimes journalism can be bleak but then you look and see that fun topics are also part of the journalism world. 

'Five Star Final'

 

imdb.com

Five Star Final movie poster.

Penny Press, Yellow Journalism, Press Barons. 

The Penny Press era. 

It established the idea that newspapers needed to chase the mass audience. "Five Star Final" shows how this was still alive and well a century later. The publisher pressures the newspaper to cut the coverage of the League of Nations and play up "shopgirls in trouble" on the front page. 

'Five Star Final'

A scene from 'Five Star Final'

I believe this was a direct echo of the Penny Press Era, because it shows how when people drop serious news and the newspapers catch wind of it, they rush to sell more papers. "Five Star Final" stands on this premise throughout the entirety of the film. For example, digging up a 20-year-old murder. As we see this, we can see that this is rooted in the Penny Press era and how crime, tragedy and even sex can sell more copies.

Yellow Journalism era.

This is the primary target; in this movie because of how much tabloid newspapers are seen. This connection is not just theatric, it's also real. In this movie we see people dig up this twenty-year-old murder, manipulation of grieving people, and taking photos of dead bodies.

These were the tactics that many people used in yellow journalism that were never abandoned. Many people still cut corners to be the headline in the paper. 

'Five Star Final'

A scene from 'Five Star Final'

Press Barons

The publisher is the film's press baron figure; the dynamic between him and the editor is the moral engine of the whole story. Randel is seen having a battle in his mind of integrity and wanting to capture more readers. 

Throughout the movie you truly see how much he feels guilty about everything, shown through the series of shots of him washing his hands. Showing this continues to prove the point that even though they feel guilty about everything it isn’t enough to stop them. 

For press barons it takes less effort and integrity than honest human centered journalism, but it is more profitable.

'Five Star Final'

A scene from 'Five Star Final'

All throughout we see the moral principle and the pushing and pulling of not knowing whether or not selling papers of a twenty-year-old murder is right or not. The breaking and entering of a house to take a picture of a dead body, and even the manipulation of grieving people.

We can take these concepts and think on how all together they are seen. 

Penny Press created mass markets

Yellow Journalism exploited moral limits 

The Press Baron shows the power in the hands of men who answer to no one. 

'Five Star Final' truly reminds me of how cruel journalism can be. Some people want to sell papers to get money but at what cost? Journalists also have the question who they write about versus the ones they have to write for. 

Well, this answer is clearly shown in this movie. 

Two innocent people are dead.

A young women's wedding is destroyed

and what does the paper call it still? 

A great story? 

EOTO #2

NBCUniversal

NBC Broadcasting in the early years of news

Early Years of National Broadcasting

By: Samantha Weiss

Before all of the technology we have today people had the radio. 

KDKA

The pioneer of Broadcasting  

November 2nd, 1920, a station from Pittsburgh the KDKA did something that no one had done before. Broadcasting a live presidential election American’s got to hear about in real time. 

After that people became obsessed, so obsessed that over 500 radio stations had launched worldwide. However, a problem had occurred since there were no set rules. Radio stations would broadcast over each other which caused the frequencies to overlap. Leading to a total disaster. 

With the overlap of frequencies radio stations also couldn't reach very far. Pittsburgh couldn't even reach New York. 

The solution?

Connecting telephone lines so one program could air everywhere at once. 

Now in 1926, GE, Westinghouse and RCA launched the Nation

al Broadcasting Company or as we all refer to it NBC. 

At the time NBC had two networks, The Red network for entertainment and The Blue network for news. This was the first time Americans could hear the same program at the same time. Which made broadcasting go National. 

NBC had a competitor CBS but luckily for NBC it was failing. 

NBC

The early starts of NBC news

Until...

William Paley bought it in 1928. NBC charged affiliates stations for programming, Paley saw this and
flipped this model around, CBS started to give their programming away in exchange for guaranteed ad time. What William Paley did become the blueprint for commercial broadcasting in America.

During this time the Radio Act of 1927 came into play, however in 1934 this was replaced by the FCC. Which established rules that govern broadcasting today.  These rules were to help serve "the public interest." In the 1930s the radio truly was the internet of its time. For example, FDR and his fireside chats. 

By 1941 the FCC decided that you can't own two networks because it was too much power, so NBC had to sell one of their networks. Which one did they choose?

The Blue Network 

In 1943 NBC sold their Blue Network for $8 million dollars, by 1945 it would become ABC. Just like that the big three were born. 

NBC, CBS, ABC 

Primetime

The triple threat of broadcasting

Even as the trio were dominating America, media television was waiting. NBC launched a TV broadcast in 1939 at the World's Fair. After WWII, both NBC and CBS raced to get themselves on the big screen. During this time a fourth network, DuMont would try and compete but ultimately fail in 1956. Which left the big three all over again. 

American Broadcasting as we know was set from then on. 

Broadcasting still is so important from every streaming platform, podcast, even cable channels are in the shadows of what was built in 1920 through 1951. The Advertising Blueprint, FCC licensing system, even the idea that media should serve public interest came from this time period. 

As American's we have so much technology to know what is happening at any point at any time. It's crazy that what we have now came from a presidential election and a bunch of static. 

Disclaimer: I used Claude Ai for help in research and the script for my speech.