EOTO- JOU Heros Reflection

    During our EOTO Journalism Hero presentations, I learned so much but the one journalist who caught my attention the most was Horace Greenley.

Credit Wikipedia

    My peer Jake Matthews taught the class about Horace Greenly and I was blown away by both his involvement in journalism and politics. I was a little embarrassed and shocked that I had never known about him before. Greenly began his career by publishing with The New Yorker as pro Whig party with commentary against slavery. In his position, he worked to influence the American public to vote for the Whig party candidate William Henery Harrison who later became the ninth president of the United States thanks to Greenly. 

    As his prominence grew, Greenly decided to start his own paper, The New York Herald. Through his new paper, he began advocating quite progressive thoughts for the time surrounding anti-slavery and working rights for the lower class. 

    Later in his life, Greenly got involved in the political sphere and in 1848 he even obtained a seat in the House of Representatives replacing someone who was unable to finish their term. In his time as a representative Greenly was admired by Abraham Lincoln who was only a district representative at the time. Greenly even served 5 years in congress until 1854 when he left he continued to be a strong support for the abolition of slavery. 

    Greenly also helped found the Republican part and would go on to help Abraham Lincoln get elected although the two had a falling out after Lincoln was president, Greenly began to speak against and criticize him for not being stronger on the abolition of slavery. It was very interesting for me to learn that Greenly is actually one of the main forces speaking out against slavery in such a big way. 

Censorship in the Main Stream Media

Tyler Menezes/flickr

    Censorship in the media isn't a new phenomenon however it is becoming increasingly more apparent and controversial with the rise of "Cancel Culture." Its been defined as "withdrawing support for (canceling) public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered objectionable or offensive" No matter where you stand on the matter it is important to consider at what point is cancel culture and this forced censorship encroaching on the First Amendment. 

    

    As a journalist, I think it is important to hold public figures accountable for their actions and make sure they aren't getting away with doing or saying something offensive, although I think we need to look at who is doing the censorship and canceling and why. Social media has grown and become a large part of society and the way we function in our day-to-day lives, due to this, tech companies who run these platforms have gained a lot of power with the worldwide audience they acquired within the last 10 years. It's worrisome to think that these companies can sometimes control the narrative and pick and choose who's allowed to have a voice. 

    Most recently we can look at the censorship of former President Trump on social media platforms like Twitter. With the unfortunate circumstances of January 6th and the rioting on the Capital, I think it was appropriate to block his access to his account as his tweets were aggravating the situation. Although on the other hand, Trump was not only the President of the U.S. but he is also a world leader and to think that Twitter has more power to censor the sitting president at the time than the government, is for lack for lack of a better term wild.

    As social media continues to run our lives we need to stay vigilant and figure out a way so that its not just four tech companies that hold all this power because it is quickly becoming a monopoly. We also need to understand that there is a difference between accountability and silencing people.

Sources that generated my thoughts:

https://www.npr.org/2021/02/10/965815679/is-cancel-culture-the-future-of-the-gop

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/03/t-magazine/cancel-culture-history.html

https://time.com/5735403/cancel-culture-is-not-real/

Top 5 News Sources

Top 5 Places Where I Receive my News:

Source 1- NPR

          As someone whos always on the go in the morning I find listening to NPR is a great way to get an overview of what's happening in the news since I went to bed. It's easy and accessible to listen along to the radio broadcast while I'm in the shower and getting dressed. For people who are busy like me it's a great resource and a conducive, productive way to get your news intake when you wake up. 

Source 2- BBC News

         I love to use BBC as a reference for outside perspective especially when it comes to politics in the United States. I feel that the BBC does a good job of staying unbiased and just giving the facts without any exaggerations. I also use this source as a reference for what's happening globally, some times I find myself caught up in US News and the BBC allows me to understand the things going on throughout the world. 

Source 3-  The New York Times

         Being one of the largest news and media publications across the world, I like to stay connected with The New York Times as it's where a lot of the public receives their news. So staying up to date on TNYT's reporting gives great insight into where the rest of the public gets their information and why they believe what they do based on their news source. I also just see it as a solid place to receive quality reporting.

Source 4-  Stamford Advocate

         Now that I go to school states away from home, I like to check up on the local news happening in my home area. The Stamford Advocate is the local paper for my hometown, Stamford Connecticut. Instead of having to rely on my parents for the town "gossip," it's nice to be able to read about it in a structured format giving me the ins and outs with all that's going on in my city. 

Source 5-  Social Media

         As a 21st-century college student, Social Media is definitely the fastest way I receive my news, usually through a quick pop-up notification on my phone alerting me to any breaking news right away. The major downside being is that it isn't always accurate, a lot of times I find myself having to double-check headlines or key details and figure out if it's just a tabloid lie or the truth. With digital media growing exponentially, now, more than ever, I feel it’s important to have unbiased journalism presented in the media.

EOTO Jou Heros- Jaccob Riis

Credit TIME

    Jaco Riis was a Documentary photojournalist and social reformer during the late 18 hundreds and early 19th century. 

    Before he became a highly regarded journalist he started out as a Danish immigrant who came to America at 21 years old working odd jobs where and when he could. But eventually, he got a job as a journalist at The New York Tribune. His role was being the police reporter working in new york cities high crime districts which is where he first met Theodore Roosevelt who was police commissioner at the time. This friendship between the two would grow and helped Riis's career grow later on. 

Credit Jacob Riis

Photo from Riis's image series "How the Other Half Lives"

    But he is most known for his 1890 photojournalism series “How the Other Half Lives.” This project visually brought to light the horrible living conditions and crisis affecting people living in New York City Tenements. Those people living there were typically members of the European immigrant community. As he himself was an immigrant he understood the struggles of these people and had once been where they were so he was even more emotionally invested in exposing these issues. Riis was truly a “muckraker” in his time helping those that had been neglected and ignored by the greater public and lawmakers and showcased their struggles and made them known and provided validity in the reports that had already been done. 

    

Riis understood that seeing is believing and that for the public, it was one thing to hear about the immigrant communities and read about their living situations in newspapers, but to see it and visually conceptualize the struggles made it tangible, so the government and public wouldn't able to refute it and turn a blind eye to the awful living conditions.

Credit Jacob Riis

Photo from Riis's image series "How the Other Half Lives"

Theodore Roosevelt even said Riis had, quote “the great gift of making others see what he saw and feel what he felt."

    Part of what made his work so successful was the advancement of photography. At the time the flash in cameras had just been developed which made it possible for dark- unlit areas to be seen and documented. So had it not been for this improvement in cameras it would not have been possible for Riis to do the work that he did. 

After doing research on Jacob Riis I've concluded that he was more than a reporter or journalist, he was a photojournalist turned activist, turned reformer. 

https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jacob-riis/overview.html
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91981589https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/pioneering-social-reformer-jacob-riis-revealed-how-other-half-lives-america-180951546/