Final Post: Hedda Hopper & Luella Parsons

Thinking about Hollywood culture, gossip, and celebrities, its safe to say that America is obsessed with knowing every detail. 

However, it wasn't always this way. Two women created this dynamic and relationship we see today between celebrities and the people. 

Louella Parsons: 

Louella Parsons (1881-1972) started her writing career while she was still in high school. She was a drama editor for the Dixon Morning Star. This gave her the experience needed to start something America has 

never seen before- a movie critic column. 

She started writing for the Chicago Record Herald in 1914 with her movie critic column. However, it was bought out by William Randolph Hearst, an extremely famous newspaper publisher, four years later, putting Parsons out of a job. This set-back cause Parsons to make a major life decision.

She moved to New York City. 

Here, she started a similar movie critic column in the New York Morning Telegraph. Parsons began to create a name for herself and establish a solid reputation in the industry, which caught the attention of Hearst, the man who originally bought her out of her job. In 1922, he offered her a column in the New York America. 

However, three years later, Parsons would received a devastating diagnosis. 

She has tuberculosis and six months to live. 

She decided to spend the remainder of her life in sunny California - which ended up changing her life. 

Miraculously, her tuberculosis went into remission and her career took off with the help of Hollywood. Parsons attempted to start a radio show, Hotel Hollywood, but it took some years for it to be successful. On this show, she would interview actors and other celebrities. Additionally, she had a social and professional align with Hearst which added to her success and made others fearful of what she had to say as the "First Lady of Hollywood'. She also had a gossip column which reached over 400 newspapers and had tens of millions of readers during her peak. 

She was more than influential. 

Similarly to Parsons, there was another impactful woman in Hollywood. 

Her name was Hedda Hopper. 

Hedda Hopper: 

Hopper was originally from Pennsylvania, but ran away to New York City to start an acting career. She

started off as a Broadway chorus girl and was in the background of many productions which allowed her to tour the country with her future husband, DeWolf Hopper, which was the reason she changed her name to Hedda.  

Her birth name, Elda, was too similar to his ex-wives' (plural), names and he would get confused. 

They later split. 

However, with the help of her husband, who was a successful actor, she moved to Hollywood to continue her career in 1923 but it severely decline in 1930, which is when she decided to start her gossip column. 

To start her writing career, Hopper started to write in The Washington Herald with a weekly gossip column but quickly lost this opportunity four months later when Hopper refused to take a pay cut. Two years later, in 1937, she started Hedda Hopper's Hollywood in The Los Angeles Times. 

Almost immediately, Hopper's column had success and she was writing gossip about famous celebrities. Her first big story, which was published in 1939, was about Franklin Roosevelt's son, James, was having an affair and getting a divorce. 

Hopper would continue to publish pieces that would damage reputations and relationships between celebrities, which made her feared. 

And hated. 

She would receive libel lawsuits, threats, and attacks because of what she had to say. Even so, she was wildly popular, reaching about 35 million readers during her peak and a salary of $250,000, which is over five million today. 

Impact: 

These two women changed journalism and Hollywood culture. Hopper and Parsons made the American people care about celebrities past their artwork- suddenly people cared about their personal lives and relationships. 

Parsons created something America had not yet realized, that movies could be seen as news worthy, which we see see in American culture today.  

Shock and Awe

"A military strategy focused on overwhelming an enemy with a swift, powerful display of force to paralyze them both physically and psychologically, aiming to destroy their will to fight." 

This is one of the brutal military strategies that the American government sent our army to do in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, called Shock and Awe. 

Which is also the name of a film that exposes the lies and propaganda that was pushed onto the people. 

Shock and Awe  was released in 2017, over a decade since the invasion but it is a powerful film that tackles the dangerous political mindset America was in and how ethical journalism ceased. The film is about a group of journalists who fight against all major news outlets and the government in the effort to post the truth in a post 9/11 America. 9

The film opens with a scene of a wounded solider in court talking expressing his distain for the propaganda produced and the lives that were ruined due to the government reacting harshly and immediately initiating war with Iraq, before true information was even revealed to the public. 

The film then follows the journalists, Jonathan Landay, Warren Strobel, John Walcott and Joe Galloway, who are reporters at the media company Knight Ridder. These four journalists are after the truth from the American government following the attacks on 9/11 but they seem to be the only ones who care about the truth. 

The movie shows real clips of politicians and journalists who are promoting the idea that Iraq producing

and possessing weapons of mass destruction. Every other news outlet was publishing the same stories claiming that American was being threaten by Iraq, with the weapons it was claimed that Iraq possessed. Americans were still shaken from the horrific and inhumane events of 9/11 which cause many people to think with their emotions, even hatred.  

It was crucial that journalists would have published true, factual, and correctly-sourced information to the people during this time of vulnerability. However, only one news company did that, Knight Ridder, and they were fighting to claim the truth against all other organizations. 

I thought that this was an excellent movie and a prime example of what it means to be an ethical journalists, even when it forces you against all others. It was admirable that this journalists stuck to their principles and fought so hard to provide truth to the American people. 

Five-Star Movie

 

Yellow journalism has had such such a large impact on American society that it has made it's way into becoming the theme of many movies and cultural elements. 

Five Star Final, 1931, is a prime example of this. 

This movie follows a journalist named Joseph W. Randall, who is played by Edward G. Robinson, in New York. He is forced to find and publish a sensational story to get the company more sales from his publisher. 

His publisher presents Randall with an assignment, to revisit a closed case of a young woman accused of murdering her lover and forced into hiding. The story starts with Randall finding the woman, Nancy, with her daughter and new husband, who are unaware of Nancy's past.  

Randall succumbs to the pressure of his publisher and pursues the story, even though it goes against his morals. 

This film surrounds the idea of morales in journalism and Randall himself debates his guilty conscious and the opinions of other's in his life. Morals and ethics is something that is presented multiple times throughout the film, in both a media sense and a personal sense with Randall having to figure out what the right decision is.

The film was particularly interesting since it dove into the personal consequences of yellow journalism, a concept which I'm familiar with.  

We've seen the consequences of yellow journalism on a national scale, with the Spanish-American war. But seeing examples on how it impacted people's personal lives and reputation was extremely interesting. 

Seeing how Randall had the power to ruin Nancy's life - and unfortunately drive her and her husband suicide - shows how much power the media hold in our community. 

This film showed me how yellow journalism has always played a significant role in American society, affecting everything from internal political affairs to individual people. 

This movie reminded me of gossip columns that have recently circulated in our society. 

Journalists have an ethical responsibility to not cause harm in their reporting but yellow journalism and gossip magazines do exactly that. 

Which calls the question that those without ethics - and purposefully cause harm - could ever truly be considered true journalists? 

EOTO 2: Reaction

Political Commentary

Learning about the history of political commentary and criticism was extremely interesting, especially given the hostile environment journalism and American politics currently live in.  

Americans have always been outward about expressing differing political opinions, considering it was one of the first rights granted in the Bill of Rights after we declared freedom from Britain. 

I have always found it so inspiring and patriotic to look back at what the Founding Fathers fought for and how they always declared their opinions in hopes of developing American to be a great nation. 

I've always seen the political cartoon, "Join or Die" but I was fascinated to learn about it's significance and

history. Created by Ben Franklin, it was used to united the American colonies against the French during the French and Indian War. When we are unified, American is at her strongest, which is something we need to remember during these times of division in our political climate.

I also found in interesting how in the 17th and 18th century, the people had strong faith in their political candidates, especially after the Sedition Act of 1798. I think it's very interesting how such a suffocating law brought people closer to democracy by being more active participants. I think if that were to happen today, people wouldn't be as active in their response. 

Learning that political op-eds didn't exist until the 1920's was very surprising as I would imagine that they would exist earlier with the invention of newspapers and the significant political and social developments of the 19th century. It's interesting that they didn't exist until the 1920's, a time of a booming economy and a happy culture in American so I wonder why American's felt the need to publish their opinions now. 

Muckraking

As a developing journalist and inspiring historian, I've always been enthralled with the subject of muckraking. It is the work of muckrakers that have developed parts of history and American to be better

and more just. 

One of the most famous, and most interesting muckrakers in history was Ida B. Wells, who was a
journalist, suffragette and an activist in the civil rights movement and the anti-lynching movement. I didn't know she was an investigative journalist who played a crucial role in reporting the murder of Emmett Till. 

Wells an inspiring, influential, and important figure of American history, and within the Civil Rights Movement, and its a shame she hasn't been highlight much throughout history. 

Muckrakers are fundamental people in sustaining true democracy and their bravery maintains a balance between the people, leaders, and creates law to unify and give power to all. 

Did You Hear?: History of Gossip Columns

Gossip has been an aspect of civilization since the dawn of time. Human nature calls us to gossip when a large group of people live together or share a sense of community. 

Ancient Greek literature is mainly gossip and stories about revenge and love. 

However, majority of the time, gossip is spread verbally, a twisted aspect of the art of storytelling. It wasn't until the development of journalism and news corporations in America that gossip got printed as news, instead of fables. 

While Europeans had been publishing gossip columns throughout the 17th and 18th century, American's didn't follow until the 19th century with the writer James Gordon Bennett. 

James Gordon Bennett was a writer for the New York Herald in the 1800's. He starting writing to show Europeans that American society was as developed and as successful to their culture. Bennett's intent was to compare American life to European aristocracy but through sharing stories about the lives of the commoners, the playboys, and the New York elite, he had started a gossip column. 

Bennett had started a new aspect of American journalism, one filled with stories and rumors and (sometimes) lies. 

Walter Winchell started the first, official, gossip column, On Broadway. Winchell first published in 1929, during the rise of Hollywood and the began to write about the mainstream celebrities at the time. Mainly he published rumors about these celebrities and commenting on their careers. 

Winchell paved the way for other writers to began their own columns, which shaped how we see gossip columns in our society today. With the rise of Hollywood throughout the 1920's, Americans now involved themselves in the lives of the stars living in glitz and glamour. 

Specially, the 1930's-1940's, gossip columns took off and became extremely popular.  

Luella Parsons and Hedda Hopper were some of the most influential gossip columnists during their time.

Hedda Hopper (Left), Louella Parsons

Parsons was a screenwriter while also writing her column, In and Out of Focus while Hopper was an actress when writing Hedda Hopper's Hollywood. 

In both of these columns published rumors about other celebrities and were not always known for the truth. However, they were extremely popular and influential. 

It was said that Hopper held the power to destroy any celebrities' career or movie she did not like. 

In these columns, they would publish about people's career choices, movie reviews, relationship status, and pit celebrities against each other. They each got millions of readers and continued to write until gossip columns started to fizzle out in the 50's and 60's. 

Until they came back. 

Magazines were the most popular source of entertainment and news during the 90's and 2000's, full of trends and current events. 

Including the hottest gossip. 

Us Weekly, People, TMZ, and In Touch were the most popular and influential magazines publishing celebrity gossip. This was a change from the columns of the past because instead of a singular column in a newspaper, now there is entire magazines dedicated to publishing the intricate details of celebrities life. 

TMZ and In Touch were most known for their sensationalism and large claims. 

These articles ruined reputations, careers, and relationships for the sake of entertainment. Now, it wasn't enough for the American people to only have the movies and TV shows these celebrities produced as entertainment, but their personal lives were placed on display. 

Today, magazine sales have dropped significantly with the rise of online outlets and social media. Instead, outlets like Tiktok or Youtube have accounts dedicated to relaying the current drama. These platforms have in-depth explanations, backed with sources which is something the columns didn't always have. In fact, they were known to spread rumors with little factual backing. 

Gossip is something that has always existed and will forever exist but the way information has spread and how it has benefited or harmed certain people has changed, drastically. 

With the on-going development of technology, is every detail of everyone's lives, not just celebrities, up for discussion? 

Freedom of Speech Leads to Freedom of All: Reaction EOTO

Learning about "The Liberator" and "The North Star Press" from Kamille Sutton and Zoē Bethea's presentation was extremely interesting since I never realized the extreme importance of the press during the Civil War. When Americans are turned against each other, the hope is that real journalism, the foundation of democracy, will unite. 

Unfortunately, that didn't happen in this case. 

The Liberator was a newspaper that that was extremely influential in spreading anti-slavery messages

during the Civil War. Starting in 1831, The Liberator was a prime tool in spreading abolishment messages. 

The publisher of The Liberator was William Lloyd Garrison, who was a printer, pacifist, and a civil rights activist. He believed in the freedom of enslaved people which is why he created The Liberator. He worked with other extremely influential civil rights activists, like Fredrick Douglass and Lucy Stone. 

Created in Boston, this paper was extremely successful in the North, thanks to Black organizations to raise funds for the paper to be able to publish. This newspaper published 3,000 copies a week, which allowed many people to read The Liberator's message. This paper published poetry, excerpts of sermons, stories about freed African Americans and reporting on major events during this time period. 

This paper had a major impact in the North, causing the abolishment movement to gain more traction and support. People who may have been indifferent on the freedom of slaves were influenced and education due to The Liberator and began to actively support their freedom. 

However, in the South, The Liberator was banned and it was illegal to read it. Garrison was hated and wanted for capture. He was actually indicted for producing anti-slavery materials, which I found extremely interesting but disturbing, that someone could be arrested for publishing news. Censorship in this country is the breakdown of democracy and is the main cause of division. 

Additionally, I learned about The North Star Press. This was another anti-slavery newspaper produced by Fredrick Douglass. The North Star went through several development and changes. The first change was calling it the Fredrick Douglass Paper and then finally as the New National Era. With these changes brought different contributors which impacted the paper in different was. 

This paper produced publications about Anti-Slavery societies, rebellions, and messages against the Ku Klux Klan. These publications helped to empower the Black community and strength support in the anti-slavery movement. 

Both of these newspapers had a lasting impact as they helped to gain support for the abolitionist movement in the North, which then obviously led to the North winning the Civil War. Without these publications, abolitionist may not have been able to spread and exchange messages and empower others to stand up against slavery. 

Once again, history has shown the extreme importance of freedom of speech and publication to create change in America. 

Rumor Has It: Yellow Journalism

Emotions. Sensationalism. Rumors.  

All of these aspects should never be found in journalism however they are the baseline and core aspects to a particular type of journalism. 

Yellow journalism. 

Yellow journalism is a style of reporting where the news values sensationalism and provoking emotions rather than reporting real news. News articles with misleading, false, or overly emotional headlines and articles are participants in yellow journalism and lead division. 

Yellow journalism started, as a coined term, in the late 1800s, when news companies wanted to sell as many papers to as many people as possible. Due to the invention of the printing press, a contraption that allowed for fast and cheap production of news papers, papers were being sold for only a penny which opened up the demographic from only the wealthy to anyone, regardless of economic class. 

The ability for anyone to be able to obtain news should have been a period of growth and connecting Americans, however, the large news monopolies saw it as a means of economic gain. Since their audience grew, the companies wanted everyone to buy as many newspapers as possible. To do this, headlines were printed that twisted the accurate events to create chaos and make Americans buy the "entertaining" news, rather than the news that printed factual information. 

During this time period, yellow journalism most prominently affected the Spanish-American war. During the last decade of the 19th century, Cuba was a Spanish colony but started to fight for independence. Americans supported their independence but it was the use of yellow journalism that got Americans directly involved. 

News companies published articles stating that Spain directly and purposefully attacked an American ship that was stationed in Havana, Cuba. This was just speculation and rumors, with not much truth attached to the claim, however, newspapers, like the New York Journal, published headlines that were anti-Spain and created an even bigger divide between America and Spain. 

In truth, the USS Maine exploded due to a freak accident and there was not evidence to blame Spain, especially at the time of the event. However, this article, which was published in February 1898, lit a fire in Americans to promote anti-Spain theology and pushed the government to declare war against Spain in May of 1898. 

History repeats itself. Most things America deals with, politically, socially, and economically, are versions of historical events America has already overcome. 

Yellow journalism is no exception. 

With the popularity of online news and the 24-hour news cycle, it has never been easier to publish and

promote false information. It is not just social media's fault, although that also promotes false information, we see bias in major news organizations as well. Many large organizations have to edit, deleted, or publicly apologize for reporting false information which leads to the lack of credibility and trust between the people and journalists. 

Our democracy is built on that trust. 

Once again, America has placed great importance on quantity instead of quality in our reporting. Misleading headlines, or just plain lies, are promoted and published more, since those articles will get more views.  We have traveled back in time, to when we cared about emotions and rumors in our news for entertainment purposes and then suffered real consequences. 

What will the consequences be this time? 

Journalism History: Reflection of the Past, Glimpse of the Future

 

Good journalists must strive to continue to learn and never forget, our history when reporting on current events. 

However, that can be a difficult promise to uphold when we, as journalists, don't learn our own history. 

Although I took journalism classes in high school, along with numerous classes about American history, I never learned the history about the most important value that all American's share. 

Free Speech. 

It was fascinating to learn the history about newspapers and journalism, starting in colonial America. Learning about how colonists had to abide by the British government's rules and regulations when writing and publishing their newspapers. This just shows how desperate early Americans were for freedom of speech. 

It was also very interesting to learn about the influential figures who suffered in the fight for free speech during the revolutionary war. People like James Franklin and John Peter Zenger who were jailed for what they published, which then lead to laws and policies being enforced in early America. 

I think it is extremely important to teach young journalists not just laws pertaining to their career, but how those laws came to be. I've appericate the freedoms I have as a citizen and as a journalist even more, now that I know the struggles and hardship people faced when striving for indepent, free-thinking journalists. 

I was also interested to learn about how Ben Franklin had to deliver coded messages in his published writing. Obviolusy, Ben Franklin is a very famous and influencional person when thinking about American history, but his journalistic contributions have been swept under the rug. 

Learning about the development of the distribution of newspapers was another fascinating aspect of journalistic history. I believe that the spread of unbias and factual news is the most important apsect of American democracy and it has been a core value since the beginning of our nation. Without this, Americans don't truly have freedom of speech. 

Before the development of the steamed-power printing press, early journalists had to physically print out their stories by hand, which was time-consuming and lead to a fast spread of news. 

With the development of the steamed-power printing press, news was able to be printed quickly and with less man-power which eventually lead to the ability to have the newspaper monopolies we see today. It amazed me how dedicated the journalists before before this invention, since they were forced to put so much work into publishing their writing, not just writing itself. 

After this invention, it seemed that the development of newspaper monopolies grew overnight. The New York Sun paper and the New York Herald started the rise of the empires which seems mirror the large newspapers we see today. 

The "Penny Press Era" also completely changed the way newspapers, so that its more similar to what we see today.  With the ability to sell newspapers for a singular penny, the companies were able to see the papers to everyone in the area, regardless of social class. This meant that the journalists and newspapers had to report their information in an unbiased manner to accommodate both political parties, which differed from the past when newspapers would publicly support one political candidate or party. 

The unbiased delivery of news is something we valued in American democracy for decades and decades. However, with the immediate delivery of news via the internet and social media, it seems that journalists no longer have time to digest their biases before reporting. Which, creates the illusion that we are traveling back in time, to the development of our countries values. 

Those who do not learn history are bound to repeat it. 

Why Am I Here?

Every year, senior girls at my high school would fight over spots in one English Elective: Ms Doreen's Jane Austen & Romance Novels class. 

However, my senior year, that elective was no longer offered, so I signed up for Introduction to Journalism with Mr West. 

I was not expecting much when I walked into that classroom that day. I was more focused on the new senior activities and privileges I was now a part of. However, as I continued to complete my work in this class and fill out college applications, it dawned on me that I should change my major on my applications from "undecided" to "journalism". 

This class brought me back to my love of writing which I always had but got dimmed by essays about Shakespeare and Beowulf. I hated English classes during middle school. 

However, it was the complete opposite when I was in elementary school. 

As a child, I would, willingly, spend my library time writing stories. I would spend hours creating the perfect characters and storylines. Well, as perfect as an eight-year-old can be. I just knew that I loved to write and it came naturally to me.  

I would also research questions that interested me and write about my findings, for no one in particular. One of my favorite topics that I wrote about was "Lion vs Tiger: Whose Winning?". 

I wish the curiosity and necessity for knowledge stayed with us in adulthood. However, I have felt it fade.

Suddenly, I realized I was a journalism student at High Point University. 

I'm sitting in the Slane Student Center, looking at the R.G Wanek Center through the window and watching tours go by. And I'm wondering why I'm here. 

I don't have a direct answer or a direct plan for how I want my life to turn out. I've always been someone who rolls with the punches and figures things out as I go. I know that I love to write and read, and I truly enjoy reading the New York Times and The Washington Post. 

I know that High Point brought me opportunities I wouldn't necessarily have at other institutions. I worked for CNN at the Republican National Convention the summer after my freshman year of college. I don't many others who can say the same thing. 

I believe in fate, so I like to think that I am here because it was always meant for me to do something I loved, I just forgot that I did. 

I'm here because I love it and I want to work for it. 

And because Ms Doreen didn't want to teach Jane Austen anymore.