Never Stay Silent and Media Law and Ethics Review

 

During my spring semester as an sophomore, I had the opportunity to take Never Stay Silent and Media Law and Ethics with Professor Dean Smith. I have had Prof. Smith before with Media Law and Literacy. I enjoy his teaching style and I love how he values and teaches his students about the importance of the First Amendment. 

In Never Stay Silent, we were able to dissect different journalistic heroes and learn about the timeline of the journalism era. I valued this dissection because it put me out of my comfort zone learning about people and things that I normally wouldn't read about in my free time. I am forever grateful for Prof. Smith for pushing me out of my comfort zone during this class. 

Media Law and Ethics was another class that pushed me out of my comfort zone. Media Law and Ethics was similar to Media Law and Literacy, yet it was definitely more academically heightening. Media Law and Ethics is usually a class for seniors, yet I was able to take this class as a sophomore. I remember the first day of the class, I asked Professor Smith if it was okay if I was in the class. He was confident in my abilities for the class. Although I wish I did better on the quizzes of this class, I appreciate learning more about important court cases regarding my major. 

FINAL BLOG POST

 ERNEST HEMINGWAY 

Little Ernest Hemingway 

Early 20s 

Early life

    Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899 in Cicero, Illinois which is now Oak Park, Illinois. Hemingway's parents were both successful. His dad was a physician and his mom was a former opera performer. Young Hemingway loved the outdoors. During the summer, he and his family would go to their lake house in Walloon Lake Michigan. 

    In highschool, Hemingway started to develop his passion for writing. He wrote for both of his schools newspapers - Trapeze and Tabula, the yearbook. During his writing career in high school, he went under a specific pen name - Ring Lardner Jr. 

    Although Hemingway didn't end up going to college, he went to Kansas and started his writing career. When America got entered WWI Hemingway wanted to enlist in the war, yet he wasn't physically eligible. He still wanted to connect ties and help out - Hemingway's efforts were to help out with the American Red Cross. 

Writing Career

Hemingway's writing and journalist career covered most of the 20th century. His works were around the mid 1920s to the mid 19150s. Hemingway wrote short stories and poems. His first publishing work was Three Stories and 10 Poems while his last one was True at First Light. Most of Hemingway's stories encapture his unique experiences and interests. For example, most of his work portrayed soldiers ad hunters. He liked to show the ways people live in the modern society at the time. 

In May of 1953, Hemingway won the Pulitzer Prize in response to his book The Old Man Sea. He found out he was the winner when he was on a ship for personal leisure.

  

  

Mental Health 

According to The National Library of Medicine, Hemingway had a variety of mental health disorders. Although he battled these conditions, to a sense, it allowed him to become even more successful in writing.  Hemingway battled with the following: severe depression, paranoid delusions, alcoholism, and hemochromatosis. Out of the following conditions, the hemochromatosis, by far was the most significant. Hemochromatosis is a genetic iron metabolism disorder that has the symptoms of fatigue and memory loss. Hemingway's family struggled with mental health issues. His father, sister, and brother, included himself, committed suicide. At the time of Hemingway's "death", his wife, Mary Welsh Hemingway, swore his death was accidental suicide. Hemingway was "cleaning" his gun when he passed away. Due to his past family circumstances, the accidental death wasn't believable. 

Journalistic Hero/ What We Should learn From Hemingway 

    Hemingway was known to be a journalistic hero by paving the way for how an ideal journalist should write. Everytime Hemingway wrote he made sure he kept things descriptive yet concise. There are several things current and upcoming journalists can learn: 

1. Be concise 

2. Don't write when you're not in the mood for it

3. The best edit may be a rewrite 

4. Listen to others 

5. Don't rush life 

Life and the media industry is such a fast paced environment, I feel like we all forget to take #5 in consideration. Specifically for my generation, we don't do #4 enough. We always think we know everything which leads us to the mindset of not really listening to others who have the experience. 

In all, learning about Hemingway has been a valuable experience for my journalism career and as a person.

In Class Video Reaction

In Media Law and Literacy, we watched the video of the murder of the two Reuter employees. I did a similar blog post: https://corrinajoyner1450.blogspot.com/2021/10/in-class-video-wikileaks.html

However, we watched it again during Never Stay Silent. I had a similar reaction the the disturbing video. The main thing that stood out to me this time was the reaction of the U.S troops trying to kill the Reuter employees. The racial slurs turned my stomach as our troops are supposed to protect and serve our country being discriminatory as well. 

Back in Media Law and Literacy, we talked about how Julian Assange made it possible for the video to come to light with the website: wikileaks. I wanted to focus on where Julian Assange is now. Julian Assange is still in maximum security jail in London. Within three weeks ago, Assange actually got married in jail. He got married to his long term lover, Stella Morris. Their ceremony took place outside of the jail.

What I Learned EOTO #3

 Citizen Journalism 

Darnella Frazier is the prime example of citizen journalism in this day in age. Darnella Frazier, 17 at the time, filmed George Floyd's murder. The impact it had on her personally skyrocketed to a national issue of police brutality.

Citizen journalism is conducted by people who are not professional journalists however they use the tools that are accessible to them.

Citizen journalism has been around for awhile, however, the prime example of the century was by far Darnella Frazier. 

Without her video, America wouldn't have confirmed the strong prevalence of police brutality. The police officers who are supposed to be protected all in the country continuously target black men. However, Frazier's efforts of citizen journalism have given the officers who murdered George Floyd punishments and even maybe slightly provided some closure for Floyd's family. 

With our society being so society heavy, we should all be apart of it. The saying see something say something now should be turned into see something, say something, film something, and post something. By doing this, we might bringing a lot of things to light and highlighting more things that need to be brought to light more.

Political Cartoons EOTO

 

  For my third EOTO, my partner and I focused on political cartoons. Here in this blog, I will focus on what a political cartoon is, the historical context of political cartoons, the importance of them, and first amendment freedom/limitations within the political cartoons. 

What is a political cartoon?

    A political cartoon is a cartoon that makes a point about a political issue or event. Many political cartoons are in the daily paper or in this day of age - online newspapers. With social media being a lot of societies way of getting news nowadays, many people post political cartoons on twitter. Political cartoons are a satire which tend to be funny. They tend to display caricature which over exaggerate certain physical features for humor effect.

Historical context of a political cartoon

Benjamin Franklin, Join, or Die campaign 

    Political cartoons have been ingrained in American history. Benjamin Franklin's 1753 "Join or Die" was the first Political Cartoon. This specific political cartoon was a snake cut into eight pieces that represented the American colonies. Back in 1753, literacy wasn't that widespread so it allowed for a different outlook providing and relaying a message to the community. It also was  a lot easier to provide information with pictures than messages. 

Satire and Defamation

     Political cartoons are satire. Satire is a literary genre that uses humor displayed by irony or hyperbole. It takes a strong understanding of the idea of satire to understand what exactly a political cartoon is trying to display. Political cartoons click for people when they identify politics overlapping with the satire. 

    When researching more about political cartoons, defamation came up constantly. Defamation is the idea that encompasses false statements that may harm someone's reputation.

Many times, satire and defamation can come into legal realms because it does pick fun at people. However, it is for humor purposes. 

Women in the Editorial Cartoon Industry

    When researching political cartoons, many of them were male dominated. However, I wanted to do some research about the women who were in the industry. The first known editorial cartoonist was Anne Mergen. Anne Mergen's work covered the Great Depression and Cold War Era.

First Black Political Cartoonist 

After our presentation, Professor Smith shared that someone in his class before did research on the first Black editorial cartoonist and that peaked my interest. 

To further on my research, I wanted to find the first Black political cartoonist. The first Black cartoonist was Henry Jackson Lewis.  Henry Jackson Lewis was an ex slave who made political cartoons focusing on social injustices.

"Goodnight and Good Luck" Movie Review

 

    Goodnight, and Good Luck is a very eye-opening movie. Although it is a fictional portrayal of the media industry. There was a lot to dissect and digest from the movie that we can currently apply to our world now. This film analyzed how powerful the media is and how to can be used for one's personal and political game. Murrow, one of the reporters, wanted to report on the truth to expose the truth on senator McCarthy. As a journalist, it is important to be honest with the audience so you can build a trusting relationship. 

Throughout the movie, I pulled away key concepts that we still apply to media today. 

1. Media has a strong influence on how we make our decisions. 

We tend to have a certain preference on what media outlets we have access to or choose from. Based off of that, it is easy to make decisions based off of what you are watching. 

2. We need to allow and force ourselves to figure out what media outlets are reliable or not 

Within news today, although it is essential to get the news out to the catered audience, we tend to allow immediacy trump accuracy. 

3. Trust goes along way

Once a journalist builds trust with its audience, it allows for an easier following.

I've never heard of this movie before this class, yet, I am very glad we were able to watch it. It showed that some things definitely didn't change within the media industry and we still have a long way to go. 

The Black Press and the Civil War

 Black people have gone through countless years of racism and injustices. From social life to work life, Black people have had to adapt. 

One of the most important assets to the Black community and Black history was the Black Press. The Black Press was a compilation of Black-owned newspapers that informed and highlighted people about the Black community. Let's take a look at some examples of some Black Newspapers.

Freedom's Journal Background

John Russwurm on the top and Samuel Cornish on the bottom

The Freedom's Journal was the first African American owned and operated newspaper in the United States. They were founded by free born African Americans - John Russwurm and Samuel Cornish on March 16, 1827 in NYC. This newspaper allowed for a safe space for African Americans to get updates on "foreign and domestic news, editorials, biographies, births and deaths" within the local African American community. The idea of this newspaper wasn't to defend African American rights but to create a union and a forum for African Americans to express and advocate their views and rights. The purpose of the journal was to also improve the conditions of the freed Black men and women living in the North.

Phillip Alexander Bell's Colored American 

Picture of Phillip Alexander Bell

Phillip Alexander Bell was a Black Journalist who was born in 1808 in NYC. Bell was in to abolitionist politics in the North East. The original name for this newspaper was The Weekly Advocate. The paper focused on "moral, social, and political elevations of free colored people and the peaceful emancipation of slaves". Many Black writers at the time wrote under different pen names to remain safe during that time. The Colored American was very well known to the Black community and allies. 

The North Star 

Picture of Frederick Douglass

The North Star, later known as the Frederick Douglass Paper was an antislavery newspaper. It was first published on December 3, 1847. The name of the newspaper was just important as the content within it. t was a tribute to the escaping slaves who used the North Star to guide them to freedom. The paper was published in Rochester, New York Rochester was the city that was well known for the opposition to slavery. The motto/mission of the newspaper was "right is of no sex- truth is of no color - God is the Father of us all, and we are the brethren". 

Black Press during the Civil War

The Civil War dates to April 12, 1861 to April 9, 1865. The Civil War was fought between the northern and Southern States or also known as the Unites States of America and the Confederate States of America. Due to many blatant discriminatory ideas and practices, many African Americans were assigned to non-combat related jobs. During the times during the Civil War the New Orleans Tribute was created. It was the first to be published in the South. A journal I read emphasized that the New Orleans Tribute was the voice of "many Black people to form a union to fight for the abolishment of slavery, same rights for and to form political group."