Seminar based around Tabloid Nation

The opening seminar of semester 1 was focused around the book Tabloid Nation written by Winchester University's journalism lecturer Chris Horrie. I lead the seminar with my seminar paper which discussed the high and low points of the Daily Mirror newspaper and how events throughout the 20th century such as the two world wars and the General Election of 1945 determined the newspaper's future.  Following on from the seminar paper the group discussed how the book is related to the film, Citizen Kane which we watched after the previous lecture. We concluded that the film had similarities to that of Tabloid Nation, as the central character Citizen Kane (who was modelled on the real life American journalist William Randolph Hearst) ended up living his final years alone and died an unhappy man who had all the wealth in the world. In the book by Horrie, Harry Guy Bartholomew who took over the Daily Mirror was fired from the newspaper and ended up dying of alcohol related problems in a small country cottage in Norfolk. From this information, I personally concluded that the journalists do not always have a happy legacy and can be remembered for the wrong reasons.

With regards to Tabloid Nation, I felt that it was a very enjoyable read and parts one and two gave a through and detailed insight into the successes and failures of the industry during the 20th century. I will read the other books that Horrie has written about the journalism industry as if they are as good as Tabloid Nation then I am positive I will enjoy them just as much.

Seminar Paper based on Tabloid Nation by Chris Horrie

The first and second parts of Tabloid Nation by Chris Horrie focus on the development of tabloid newspapers in the 20th century and how the journalism industry was very volatile.  With the continuing success of newspapers such as the Daily Mail, other newspapers such as the Daily Mirror suffered setbacks which would make the road to success more troublesome. The following seminar paper based on Tabloid Nation will focus on one particular newspaper, the Daily Mirror and how events both within the newspaper itself and global events would determine its success as a popular national newspaper.

In 1896, Lord Northcliff began creating a newspaper publishing empire which included the national newspaper the Daily Mail. The Daily Mail featured a women’s section with articles based on fashion, decorating and cookery. These articles were so popular amongst women that it was decided that a daily newspaper should be published that was aimed at a female audience.  In 1903, a new newspaper was introduced named the Daily Mirror and this was targeted at a female audience.  Sales of the newspaper were low with only 25,000 copies being sold each day.  One reason for the low sales figures may have been that women were perceived to be too busy in their everyday lives to read newspapers. After the initial failure, it was decided that action should be taken to modify the newspaper in order to attract more potential readers. The newspaper began to print full page spreads with very little text and printed images of important figures such as King Edward VII in an attempt to increase sales figures by attracting both a male and female audience. By 1907, 290,000 copies of the Daily Mirror were sold each day but one photograph was about to change its success.  In 1910, following the death of King Edward VII, the newspaper printed a front page photograph of King Edward VII resting in peace and overnight sales of the newspaper soared to a world record of 2,013,000 copies. This increase in sales meant that the newspaper had increased its target audience, therefore as long as it continued to contain shocking images the public would still want to buy the newspaper each day to find out what the latest headline photographs were.

In 1910, Lord Northcliff sold his shares in the Daily Mirror to his brother, Harold in order to focus on the Daily Mail. Harold employed Harry Guy Bartholomew to take on the role of photography editor and the outbreak of war in 1914 gave Bartholomew the opportunity to secure the newspaper’s future. As events of World War One unfolded he seized the chance to publish exclusive images of trench warfare and as a direct result, sales of the newspaper increased to 1.700,000 making it the highest selling daily newspaper of the time.  The effect of the war was crucial to the newspaper’s popularity as people across Britain purchased the newspaper in order to receive the latest information about their loved ones. As the war progressed the Daily Mirror became known as the newspaper which represented the soldiers fighting in the war.  This offered a level of comfort to both the soldiers and their relatives on the Home Front as they felt that the newspaper was taking care of them by spending time gathering vital information. Newspaper companies today also use a similar method to those during World War One as they employ news correspondents to travel to war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan to gather information for news reports about events such as suicide bombing and the violence of the Taliban.  However, this is slightly different to the reporting during World War One as censoring guidelines have been introduced in the modern day which prevents newspapers from printing shocking photographs which show death or horrific injuries.

As the Daily Mirror became the most popular newspaper in Britain, events within rival newspaper companies would put the Mirror under threat. The TUC publishing company purchased the Daily Herald and invested nearly £8,000,000 in order to outsell the Daily Mirror. In 1934, Bartholomew, who was now the editor in chief of the newspaper decided to take drastic action to save the paper and collaborated with Cecil Harmsworth King. The pair aimed to convert the paper from being a typically British daily newspaper to a modern New York style tabloid newspaper focusing on cartoon strips and letter pages for women. In 1938, an agony aunt was introduced into the newspaper to offer advice to women who were struggling with aspects of their lives. During the next few years the newspaper became one of the biggest selling newspapers in the world with 2,400,000 copies being sold each day. This was partly due to the fact that women were finally able to voice their opinions to a newspaper giving them a level of freedom; therefore it had mass appeal to working class women as well as men. When the Second World War broke out in 1939, the newspaper used similar methods to those used during the First World War, printing articles written by journalists on the front lines which focused on conditions of the trenches and the progress made by the soldiers towards defeating Germany. The war played a major part in people’s daily lives, due to the fact that there was a great deal of worry about the safety of the soldiers and the fact that the Daily Mirror printed the largest number of front line reports of any national newspaper at the time meant that British people felt a certain degree of comfort and viewed the newspaper as a blessing.

After the war ended in 1945, the Daily Mirror continued to be a successful tabloid newspaper and was particularly influential during the General Election of 1945 where the Labour was voted into power by a record majority.  The newspaper printed large campaign articles and posters persuading the public to vote for the Labour Party as it would benefit the working classes of Britain. This was vitally important as the newspaper was aimed at the working classes which made up the high percentage of people in Britain. Therefore, it could gain access to the largest group of people meaning that with the correct style of articles, the Daily Mirror could help determine the politics of Britain gaining even more power. This run of success has continued from the General Election through to the present day where it still attracts millions of readers each day.

From reading Tabloid Nation, it is clear that the Daily Mirror suffered periods of mass popularity and also times where its survival and future as a newspaper was uncertain. One of the reasons why it suffered a period of decline was the fact that rival newspapers like the Daily Herald were gaining increasing power and money was invested in them to attempt to outsell the Daily Mirror, meaning sales figures of the Daily Mirror declined. Action was taken in order to improve the newspaper and these changes had a huge impact on its popularity. The newspaper overcame its periods of unrest and established itself as a popular national daily newspaper with a wide target audience. Over the course of the last 60 years it has emerged as one of the most popular daily newspapers and has continued to be successful to the present day.  In 2009, it was reported that the Daily Mirror sells 2,000,000 copies per day and due to its success it can be regarded in the journalism industry to be one of the most influential newspapers of the 20^th century.

Introductory lecture

Modernism introductory lecture

So as year two begins at university, so do the journalism lectures. The first lecture of Semester 1 focused around the subject of modernism in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. Modernism was based around a concept that everything was in relation to everything else and there was no definite answer. For example, according to modernists time can only be described as relative as there is no certain answer to when time began or will end. This theory was controversial at the time as it opened up a whole new way of thinking which had never been explored before and rejects the ideas that were presented during the Enlightenment and Renaissance periods.  Around this time there were key figures such as Sigmund Freud who paved the way for a new understanding of the world from a psychoanalytical perspective. In addition, composers such as Wagner and Nietzsche created a new genre of operatic music which would revolutionise operatic styles forever.

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist who specialised in psychoanalysis and his 1899 book, The Interpretation of Dreams which highlighted how dreams are a strong medium for gaining access to our true thoughts and emotions. He believed that every human being alive had a subconscious where they were not in control of their individual thoughts and behaviour. Throughout our lives, we experience events such as dreaming in which we attempt to gain access to. These events are a sign of repression and as humans we attempt to block painful or traumatic memories and experiences. The next lecture in History and Context of Journalism focuses on Freud and his psychoanalytic theories so I will be able to write a blog based around his theories.

Wilheim Richard Wagner
22 May 1813  – 13 February 1883

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a 19^th century German composer who used erotic and sexual music in his operas in order to create emotion and expression. This is particularly highlighted in his opera Tristan und Isolde where the harmonies and tone of the music express sexual pleasures and fantasies followed by tragedy and death. The composition of his music was considered to be revolutionary during the century as music prior to this time was expressed happiness and love. Wagner’s operas had such a profound effect on audiences at this time that a theatre was constructed in Germany, named the Bayreuth Festspielhaus which stages his most famous operas for a period of time each year. The theatre is still open today and Wagner fans are prepared to wait years on a waiting list just to purchase tickets to see a performance.

Friedrich Nietzsche
October 15, 1844 – August 25, 1900

Another figure of the 19^th century which influenced the modernist movement was Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche was a composer who also studied theology and how mankind had evolved from being primitive creatures living in caves to civilised beings within a constantly changing society. He believed that mankind was destroying itself as it was keeping weaker people alive through the use of medicine contradicting Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution that the fittest in society will survive while the weak die. As evolution had been halted by the introduction of medicine mankind had to find a new method by which society could advance. Nietzsche’s answer to this was for mankind to evolve through new technology and high education and breed a new generation of people that were superior (super people), while disabled and seriously ill people in society had to be killed. This process came to be known as ergonic breeding. Following on from his theories of ergonic breeding, Nietzsche became mentally unstable and spent his final years in silence staring at a blank wall.

Following on from the lecture, we watched a screening of the 1941 American film, Citizen Kane. The film follows the life of a character named Charles Foster Kane who is based upon the American newspaper tycoon, William Randolph Hearst.  In the film, Kane is a young aspiring journalist who aspires to create his own newspaper empire and gain wealth and power. As the years pass he marries and divorces twice and his final divorce from his wife, Susan Alexander leads him to a life of misery where finally he dies a lonely old man in a mansion. I have posted a Youtube link to a video of a scene near the end of the film where Kane realises that all the fame and fortune he had of being a journalist and editor was for nothing as he is lonely and unhappy. He gets angry and destroys objects that remind him of the past as they are of no use to him now.  The film really gave me an insight into what life is like as a journalist and how power and wealth can have devastating consequences if you are not careful.

Link for the Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3hfQ2IOc8s&feature=player_detailpage

Seminar based on Dreyfus and J'accuse

The final seminar of semester 2 and indeed year 1 of the History and Context of Journalism course was based around the Dreyfus affair and J'accuse written by Emile Zola. During the seminar there were two seminar papers which were read to the group both containing well contructed opinions of the affair.The papers sparked a very long discussion about racism and how people who have different religious beliefs can be targeted as the Dreyfus affair shows as he was blamed for the scandal because he was Jewish. The group decided that this kind of racism continued after the affair with Hitler and the Nazi party targeting Jews during the First World War. One of the main areas of debate during the seminar was to what extent did journalism play a part in uncovering the Dreyfus affair and the response by the French public to Zola's article. Journalism had a major role as reporters gathered stories from the courts, the army and the public and wrote articles which were published in a number of  French newspapers and also newspapers all across Europe. This level of press coverage had an affect on the public as during the affair they began to take sides with the left wing accusing Dreyfus and the right wing supporting him and this was not only happening in France but throughout Europe.

The Dreyfus Affair

The final lecture of semester 2 was based around The Dreyfus affair and J’ Accuse written by Emile Zola written in 1898. This affair can be seen as one of the most crucial events in history and had a huge impact on journalism. In order to fully understand the affair in its context we must look at the history of France during the 19^th century.

In 1871 the French army was defeated by the Prussian army during the Franco Prussian War and Paris was under siege. There was a severe shortage of food and the Parisians were forced to eat animals from the zoo and the rich merchants fled.  France was absolutely ruined as a country and the King, Napoleon III was forced to abdicate and a new provisional government was formed. The rich merchants returned to Paris and demanded rent with interest from the workers which they had no means to pay as they had just been freed from siege. In March of that year, the poor started a revolution whereby they took control of the state and the Paris Commune was set up to introduce new social reforms that would benefit the people such as improved working conditions. At the end of May, the French army stormed into the city and destroyed the commune executing nearly 30,000 people.

Alfred Dreyfus
9 October 1859 – 12 July 1935

The Dreyfus affair began in 1874 when secret documents were found in a rubbish bin at the German Embassy giving important information about the French army. The government immediately began looking for the culprit and Alfred Dreyfus was accused of supplying documents to the Germans. Dreyfus was a captain in the French army and was fully educated at a military school. He grew up in the town of Alsace which was German controlled and was raised by his parents as a Jew. During his trial in front of French army officers he was humiliated and his war medals were torn off his uniform and his sword was snapped in half.  He was judged to be guilty and was sent to Devil’s Island where he was imprisoned, had little exercise and awful food.  Following his exile a fellow French journalist, Emile Zola published an article named J’ Accuse in a newspaper claiming that Dreyfus was innocent and he named the corrupt officers who had actually been spying. The documents were found to be written by Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy who was a known spy. After much uproar he was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay huge fines.

When the French government changed, Dreyfus was brought back from Devil’s Island but he was a weak shadow of his former self. He was weak and could barely talk and his name was in ruins. It was ordered that he should face yet another trial and amazingly he was found to be guilty yet again with “extenuating circumstances”. This was one of the biggest trials in Europe and journalists came to France from all over Europe to report on events. Before the trail began his barrister was shot but police refused to help and he was robbed of all his possessions. He was eventually pardoned in 1899 but the events had caused a great divide throughout Europe between the left and right wing parties.

Seminar based on Rural Rides

The seminar this week was based around Rural Rides written by William Cobbett in 1830 which is essentially a collection of articles which were written throughout Cobbett's journeys across England. He wanted to witness the situation in the countryside for himself as the Industrial Revolution was having a massive impact on agriculture and trade and get opinions from the people whose lives it was affecting first hand. During the seminar three people presented a paper offering various interpretations and opinions of Rural Rides with one paper containing a set of questions which members of the group answered. I thought this was a good idea as it meant we had a clearer understanding of Cobbett and the context in which the book was produced. Overall, for me personally the seminar added further knowledge to my understanding of Rural Rides which will hopefully be important for the exam at the end of May.

William Cobbett lecture

During the 19^th century England was experiencing a period of great change which would lead to one of the biggest revolutions in history- the industrial revolution. Agriculture began to decline leading to mass famine and new cities such as Birmingham and Manchester were emerging as the industrial centres.  This change marked the transition from the 17^th and 18^th centuries when there was focus upon science and how this affected the world in which we live to the paradigm of change and how nature played an important part in society not just mechanics.  Philosophers began to interpret and understand the world through change such as Darwin’s theory of evolution in 1859.  He believed that all species evolved from natural selection and that only the best members of a species survive and reproduce to continue the process. Chemistry and geology were seen as important sciences as they were able to explain the development of the Earth through chemical change and not just science.  As the British Empire began to industrialise and develop it came into contact with the Eastern world and countries such as India. It became heavily influenced by Hinduism and Buddhism as these non Ibrahamic religions believed in a constant cycle of life and death whereby life was an endless process.

During the revolution nearly all traces of agriculture and farming were destroyed. The army known as the “Red Coats” destroyed the land all across Britain so that farmers were unable to produce crops or use the land for grazing. Scotland was particularly affected as it relied heavily on agriculture for wool production and hunting and when this industry was destroyed Scotland was left helpless and unable to export any goods. Many Scottish farmers were forced to migrate to the inner cities or to other countries such as Canada and the USA.  The few remaining farms that were not destroyed by the Army became large industrial farms under the Act of Enclosure passed in 1878.

William Cobbett
9 March 1763 – 18 June 1835

William Cobbett who was an English Journalist produced a series of articles relating to this change which were published in his 1830 book “Rural Rides”.  He travelled around many areas of Southern England documenting the conditions of these areas from the point of view of a farmer and a social reformer.  He believed that parliament should only enforce a law to help agriculture if members have witnessed conditions first hand. He witness tens of thousands of landless peasants who were struggling to survive and had no option but to migrate to the cities to find factory work.  In 1844 a law was introduced whereby people were forced to find work in cities otherwise they would be placed in a workhouse where they would eventually starve and die.