Joseph Pulitzer EOTO

Background on Pulitzer

    Joseph Pulitzer, the one most famously who has an award named after him, was born in Mako, Hungary, on April 10th, 1847. Pulitzer was born into a relatively rich family which allowed him to attend private school for some of his life. Pulitzer wasn't always known as the famous journalist, at the age of seventeen he decided to join the Austrian Army. However, due to some physical ailments, he wasn't able to continue within the army. While Pulitzer was visiting Germany, he interacted with a recruiter from the U.S Army Union and that's what let him to the States during the American Civil War (1851-1865). Pulitzer was determined to continue his military career, however, in this case with a change of scenery. 

                                                        

Pulitzer knew very little english when he came to the states, however, that would soon change as he began to build a name for himself as a "tireless enterprising journalist".  Once the American Civil War ended, Pulitzer became a reporter on a daily newspaper called the Westliche Post.  The Westliche Post was a newspaper based in St. Louis Missouri. After he noticed his talent for writing, he decided to buy a share in the paper. Pulitzer then ventured off to another St. Louis based paper called the Staats-Zeitung, however sold that one to the St. Louis Globe. After that huge move, he acquired the St. Louis Dispatch which then merged into the Post Dispatch. Pulitzer's idea of acquiring newspapers went on and on and eventually led him to NYC. 

                                                        

Pulitzer's papers ranged from a variety of topics. He focused on the following: politics, investigative reports, and later on focusing on what we call normal for news papers... comics, sports, women's fashion, etc.

                    

                                    

Many of us may have heard of Pulitzer even despite all of the background I gave before. Joseph Pulitzer's name may have come up when you've heard the phrases: Pulitzer vs. Hearst or the Pulitzer Prize. As a journalist in the making, Pulitzer vs. Hearst is a great chunk of history to be aware of. Within this battle, the term yellow journalism comes to mind. Yellow Journalism is the idea of a newspaper reporting that emphasizes (sometimes over emphasizes) sensationalism over facts. In this day of media, yellow journalism is a lot like the term fake news. 

The idea of the Pulitzer prize was unintentionally invented by Joseph Pulitzer. As stated several times in this blog and throughout researching with him, he was never 100% healthy. With that being said, in his will he wanted to endow in Columbia University School of Journalism annually which opened the door for the Pulitzer Prizes.

Doing this blogpost truly opened my eyes and connected the dots on a famous journalist hero.