Modernism

In lecture we were told about Modernism, it came after enlightenment and romanticism which were complete opposites to modernism. We focused mainly on Nietzsche he did not like christianity at all. His famous for the quote 'God is Dead', he blames religion for the de-evolution of humans. He thinks that people could have become some kind of 'super intelligient beings' if it wasn't for christianity. He thought that people shouldn't rely on a book for moral guidance, he believes very much in individualism and that people should think for themselves about their own moral beliefs. Nietzsche liked the arts and teamed up with Wagner to make plays in this period. Wagner made plays about rape, incest, cannibalism etc, these plays were dark. They fell out after Wagner did a play about christianity. Nietzsche resented women for the reason that they gave life, he was a believer in suicide. Nietzsche seemed to be a very bitter and somewhat twisted man. This was also when slavery was abolished which meant the arts were influenced by afro-Americans. It started with jazz music then developing into blues and then pop music. This was also when the Holocaust happened, a mass murder of the entire population of Europe, although stopped. Modernism from what I've learnt was a dark and sinister time to live. It was all about death or crime, i think people were trying to explore new ways of living but in a sinister way.

Seminar 1- Tabloid Nation

In seminar we discussed Alfred Harmsworth (Lord Northcliff) and Tabloid Nation. Harmsworth set up the Daily Mirror and The Daily Mail. He took Hearst's idea of selling the front page of the newspaper to the audience with pictures and bigger headlines etc. He also brought yellow journalism to the UK. He also wanted the Daily Mirror to be for women, so he hired women journalists to write for the newspapers which had never been done before. However this didnt work well so he fired all the women journalists.
We considered the comparisons between Hearst and Harmsworth, a good point that was made was that Harmsworth wasn't afraid to try new things and fail whereas Hearst was. Hearst didn't want to fail at anything and was what seems to be very arrogant when it came to his newspapers. Harmsworth would try new things like with his women columns and new that even if it didn't work out he could try again. Hearst was also considerably more ruthless than Harmsworth, he would do anything to gain a story. Harmsworth was more of a businessman than Hearst, he didnt just concentrate on the newspaper he also used his newspaper to gain political power.
The tabloid nation has an interesting quote that we noticed, that advertisers must be pleased. If advertisers aren't pleased with the content of the newspaper then they won't pay to advertise in that newspaper so it would lose money. This stops the journalists writing with complete freedom. Also could mean there would be some corruption in what is written if the advertisements want an opinion to be made on certain issues.

Lecture 1- William Randolph Hearst

In our first lecture we dicussed how America transformed when a lot of immigrants from Europe fleed to America, there was a big drive West to the California Gold fields, which was the making of the Gold Rush. California was the beating heart of America, they believed that the further West you travelled the more American you were.
George Hearst was one of the people who travelled west in the promise of Gold. California at this time was a blank canvas so anybody could gain power at this time. It is alleged that he won the San Fransisco Examiner in a poker game. Whether this is the case Hearst worked hard at making the newspaper a success. As the newspapers in those days were either political or commercial, Hearst chose to make his newspaper political so it could help him with his campaign to gain power. This was a smart move for him to do to help his campaign.
W R Hearst took over the Examiner in 1887 transforming newspapers. Hearst changed the style of the old Examiner, before the front cover was covered with text but Hearst reduced the stories, made the headlines bigger and added illustrations. He knew what the audience wanted and what they would be more attracted to. Part of his new style he wanted to include a cartoon, so he stole Pulitzer's Yellow Kid cartoon. For a time they were competing over the Yellow Kid cartoon. The cartoon in Hearst's newspaper spoke in the lower class slang and gave the higher class a hard time which related to the lower class making it more appealing to the customers. He knew that crime and sex pays so wrote a lot of stories on this. He also started investigative journalism which paid of very well in gaining stories. He sent his employees to Cuba to help with the war to try and gain support from the Americans, when he sent his men though they were coming back with no stories so he is famously quoted saying he will sort out a war for them. After this a US ship exploded so Hearst blamed the Spanish thus creating a war. He realised that war sells better than sex or crime so he exploited this as much as possible. Hearst was a ruthless and manipulative man but he was very good at what he did. He knew people liked drama so played on this maybe even exagerating stories. He created the models in which tabloid journalism stands now.