When we were assigned to look to the past for inspiration, for our next blog, I immediately thought about the Spanish American War, in the late 1800’s. As a child I always loved that time period in history everything seemed so radical and fantastic. Theodore Roosevelt was a hero on a horse and the News Papers were dressing up the “facts” to create sensational stories that riled up the people of the time. Yellow journalism was the name given to all the exaggerated fairy tales that the two leading New York Newspapers were writing. Hertz and Pulitzer were the leading yellow papers and they became unbelievably wealthy from their stories.
Even though I think journalism should be truthful and informative, I sometimes long for the times of sensational news. I think that the media is the driving influence on most people’s opinions. The Spanish American War is a perfect example of that. I sometimes wonder if the press decided to report differently about Iraq would American’s feel differently?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Absolutely! You even said it yourself: The media is the driving influence on most people's opinions.
It makes me question though, why we base our opinions off the media, if we know that those opinions weren't formulated on our own. It's as if the media is supplying us with our choices on how to react...so opinions don't reflect anything more than other opinions (not personal beliefs, like they should).
Plus, the media is biased. So of course Americans would see things with a whole new perspective if the war was reported any other way.
Post a Comment