EOTO #2: Terms and Concepts:The Political Column

 EOTO #2 The Political Column

The first earliest political column emerged with the first known connection to Thomas Paine. Thomas Paine laid the foundational groundwork for political columns and political commentary. However, the political columns and political commentary of the 30s and 40s was the major birth of an enterprise. The most common man in the world of political columns is Walter Lippmann and Will Rogers. 

The political column emerged during the party press era when politics came to the forefront of the news. The political column and commentary can be attributed to Thomas Paine’ “Common Sense”. “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine was the first introduction to political commentary. Thomas Paine and “Common Sense” was the open avenue of political columns and one hundred fifty five years later it led to Walter Lippmann’s creation of his political column “Today and Tomorrow”. 

Walter Lippman was an American newspaper commentator, an author who made a sixty year career in the world of political columns. 
He was influenced by philosophers, and he studied at Harvard. A little bit more about Walter Lippman is that his column, “Today and Tomorrow” launched in nineteen thirty one. The column was known to hundreds of newspapers, and it ran for decades. The political column “Today and Tomorrow” was written beginning in the year nineteen thirty one and lasting up until nineteen sixty seven. The column was run for thirty six years. 

The column focused on issues of importance in the penny press era that were a set of issues surrounding coverage into crime, local issues, natural disasters,  human interest stories, the arts, society pages, and gossip. The specific aspect of news that I want to address is the political column. The political column had two big major contributors in the world of news that I want to focus on. The first contributor I want to address is Walter Lippmann. Walter Lippmann was born in New York City in eighteen eighty nine. His news career consisted of working for the New York Tribune, The New York World, The New Republic, and Newsweek to name a few. 

 The second biggest contributor to what became known as the political column was Will Rogers. Will Rogers was born in eighteen seventy nine in Oklahoma. Will Rogers was a performer, actor, and comedian. Will Rogers contribution to the world of political columns was centered around a social commentary about politics and news. He wrote daily telegrams about politics and gave a funny commentary to such serious matters. 

He was focused on expressing his dissatisfaction to politics as a whole, and showing that neither party was really the best. Will Rogers exhibited a happy go lucky personality. In summation, the political column was influenced by many people, but the two men I chose to focus on specifically were important contributors to the news and political column in the terms of their different approaches that were used in the world of news. Will Rogers and Walter Lippman equally approached their news differently, but both were equally important and necessary.

Five Star Final:Key Post

 Five Star Final 

Penny Press Era

The Five Star Final was an interesting film. The Five Star Final movie had an interesting aspect of journalism that occurred in the Penny Press Era. The penny press era was focused on  news coverage that focused on crime, local issues, natural disasters,  human interest stories, the arts, society pages, and gossip. The Penny Press Era journalism was very prevalent in the film. The film was centered around the story of Nancy Voorhees and the crime that she committed. The story resurfaced years later when the news outlet New York Evening Gazette needed to gain traction and increase sales again, so they decided to reinvestigate and publish the story of Nancy Voorhees. The specific area the film focused on within the penny press era was crime and human interest stories. 

Yellow Journalism

The Five Star Final film also incorporated elements of yellow journalism. Yellow Journalism is defined by Britannica as “the use of lurid features and sensationalized news in newspaper publishing to attract readers and increase circulation. The phrase was coined in the 1890s to describe the tactics employed in the furious competition between two New York City newspapers, the World and the Journal”. The film heavily employed yellow journalism in the aspects of how the news used headlines of Nancy and her story. Throughout the film it kept showing elements of yellow journalism when it published both stories in regard to Nancy and the crime she committed, and later once again in the end of the film when the headline spoke of her and her husband’s suicide.  The yellow journalism in the film was a very prominent element of the story. I personally feel that the yellow journalism was captivating which is the goal. I also feel that it helped move the story along because it kept me as a viewer gripped to the story. 

Press Barons 

The major press barons in the story was Bernard Hinchecliffe and Joseph W. Randall. Both of these men were people who kept the New York Evening Gazette running. Those men were the major influences to the flow of the movie and a major influence in the overall negative outcome that affected Nancy Voorhees and her family. For instance, when Nancy encountered the headline about her story being published and the intent of the story being published harming the current life she had built. In a plea to the press barons, Nancy attempted to contact the Gazette and try to persuade them to call off her story and let her live in peace. However, in her many attempts the press barons ignored her pleas and insisted that she stop contacting the news outlet. The publishing of the story led to the detrimental life ending incident that claimed the life of Nancy and her husband.

 Ethics 

Lastly, the ethics of the gazette were non-existent in the film. For instance, when Nancy was approached about her daughter’s wedding to be featured in the gazette, it was under false pretenses. The character T Vernon Isopod portrayed himself as a priest to get information about Nancy, which was then used against her in the article. The information used against Nancy led to her untimely death and her husband’s suicide. Overall, the lack of ethics was shocking and hard to witness. In summation, the Five Star Final was an eye-opening and captivating film that captured the Penny Press Era of News very well.