Today was the first lecture for History and Context of Journalism year two.
William Randolf Hearst.
Hearst was an American journalist who first took control of The San Fransisco Examiner and then The New York Journal. Some say he is a brilliant journalist who is responsible for papers like The Sun, whilst others think he took us down the wrong path.
As a child he loved art. Later on in life when he inherited some money he travelled to Europe to buy pieces of art for his home. He had a fantastic eye which he later on applied to his newspapers.
He obsessed over the front page making headlines bigger, reducing the amount of text and getting rid of advertising. He introduced pictures; like the art he longed for her new that pictures would draw in a different audience. He said that "they attract the eye and stimulate the imagination of the lower classes and materially aid comprehension."
The writing became more focused and urgent such as 'BUTCHERED AS THEY RAN.' He knew that crime, sex and war sold news papers.
The reason Hearst was so successful I believe is down to his father George Hearst. He travelled 1000 miles to California in 1850 during the gold rush where he worked extremely hard and became very wealthy.
The gold rush of California in the mid 19th century meant that people from the failed revolution and the Irish famine fled for America with new hopes. They headed West for California.
The West was a blank canvas with a sense of adventure that bought the Americans into thinking that they had the right to expand and explore even if it meant pushing out other people, including the Indians.
With characters like William and George it is often hard to tell what is fact or legend, but it is suggested that George won The San Fransisco Examiner at a game of poker, although he was illiterate so had little interest in it so William took over. It was a pro-labour, anti-capital, anti-railroad paper which supported the unions but was at times guilty of racism.
William Hearst moved to New York and met Joseph Pulitzer who was known as a genius of newspaper trade. Like Hearst he also aimed news at the working classes, being called sensational which in those days meant to have sense - some feeling with what you're writing.
Pulitzer again like William used pictures in his paper, one in particular being The Yellow Kid. His character was an immigrant with immigrant friends who was up to no good, giving the upper class grief and spoke like he was from the streets. He was extremely understandable to the lower classes.
Hearst loved The Yellow Kid so much that he hired an artist to draw him one for the New York Journal, and as copyright wasn't exactly good then it was all fine!
Hearst and Pulitzer began conflicting, each wanted the BIG story, an example would be from the headline 'MYSTERY SOLVED BY THE JOURNAL.'
A dead body was washed up onto the river and each man set out to get the story so much that Hearst sent out reporters to investigate themselves. At the time, America was like the Wild West so you could do whatever you wanted.
The first original investigative journalist (known as Muckraking in her time) is considered to be Nellie Bly.
The event that boomed Hearst into the big time was the Spanish War. At the time Cuba was ruled very unfairly and un reasonably by Spain, but Hearst became a champion for their cause by getting America involved. Up until now America had been isolated, having nothing to do with Europe but this intervention into Cuba was the beginning of America's interest in other places.
Hearst sent his reporter Harding Davis into Cuba to report about the war he believed was going to happen but when Davis contacted him saying that there was nothing happening Hearst simply replied with "Please remain. You furnish the pictures. I'll furnish the war." This shows that he wanted a war! He knew that wars sold papers.
Considered the most beautiful woman in Cuba 18 year old Evangelina Gisneros was captured and imprisoned for apparently not sleeping with a soldier. Hearst created a petition with signatures from famous, powerful women on it but this did not work so he sent a reporter with a bag of money to the prison where Evangelina was being held. She was released and sailed to New York to meet the President.
The front page of the New York Journal read 'MISS EVANGELINA GISNEROS RESCUED BY THE JOURNAL. An American Newspaper Accomplishes at a Single Stroke What The Best Efforts of Diplomacy Failed Utterly to Bring About In Many Months'
(from http://img694.imageshack.us/i/journal8deoctubrede1897.jpg/)Underneath her picture it reads 'Miss Gisneros before and after fifteen months incarceration.'
Hearst's first paper to reach a circulation mark of over 1 Million was when the USS Maine ship sunk. Which again proves that war sold!
To celebrate his wealth he brought 12 yachts, a giant hot air balloon, a printing press, the first ever motion picture camera, 20 correspondents and of course two show girls dressed as sailors.
