Shock and Awe

 

Prime Video

Shock and Awe is an American Drama that was released in 2017.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines shock as "a sudden or violent mental or emotional disturbance" and awe as "an emotion variously combining dread, veneration, and wonder that is inspired by authority or by the sacred or sublime."

The title of the movie Shock and Awe is referring to the military strategy for which the movie is named. Shock and awe is a strategy in which a military uses extreme force in order to ruin an enemy's battlefield and hopefully defeat them. It is more specifically referring to the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the U.S. which was called "Shock and Awe" because of the force used.

CNN

President Bush was in office from 2001-2009.

Shock and Awe is based on the true story of the U.S. war with Iraq following the devastating events of 9/11. The movie focuses on the president of the time, George W. Bush, and his administration's decisions as well as the journalists set to investigate the president.

George W. Bush declared war because he believe Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction that could devastate the U.S. if used. The journalists were set to investigate this claim.

The movie features a news service called Knight Rider, which owned 31 newspapers in Washington, D.C. The bureau head for the news service is John Walcott, played by Rob Reiner. Walcott sends Warren Strobel (James Marsden) and Jonathan Landay (Woody Harrelson) to be the main investigative journalists on the Bush Administration.

Left Voice

This is a photo of "Shock and Awe" in Iraq. 

Throughout the movie, the major news networks continue to side with the Bush Administration and defend the war against Iraq. However, the Knight Rider journalists believe that what President Bush is saying is false, and they are determined to give America the truth.

At the end of the movie, Walcott, Strobel and Landay prove that they are right and that the Bush administration has no valid justification for the war in Iraq. 

Warren Strobel and Jonathan Landay received the Raymond Clapper Memorial award from the Senate Press Gallery for their impressive journalistic work.

My Thoughts 

I really love that this movie is based on a true story and tells about the actual events and decisions that took place in the U.S. government in the 2000s. I was born in 2003, so it was also interesting to learn about a piece of history that I was alive for but not old enough to remember.

It was also really amazing to learn about the incredible journalistic work of the three men of Knight Rider. Even when every major news network was defending the Bush administration, these journalists stuck to their gut and were determined to give the public the truth about the was in Iraq. I can only hope to be a hardworking and honest journalist like these men one day.

(Fun Fact: Johnathan Landay now works for Reuters, which I did one of my EOTO presentations on!)

Barbara Walters

Barbara Walters is considered one of the most famous and highly regarded journalists of the 20th and 21st centuries. She is an icon who paved the way for the future of females in journalism.

New York Times

This is the cover image for her book Rulebreaker.

Barbara Walters was born on September 25, 1929 in Boston, Massachusetts. Her father, Lou Walters, was a nightclub owner who expanded his business from Boston to Miami, Florida in 1929. 

She attended private schools in New York City and graduated from Miami Beach High School in 1947. 

Because of being in Miami, she was exposed to being around celebrities from a young age, which some believe is why she appeared so nonchalant when interviewing famous people.

Walters went on to attend Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. She received a B.A. in English and graduated in 1953. 

After working for an advertising agency for a short time, she landed her first job in news as the assistant to the publicity director of the NBC affiliate WRCA-TV in NYC. Next she was hired as a writer and producer for CBS's Morning Show. It is clear that Walter's career was already setting her on a fast track towards success.

It was her next career move that changed her life. In 1964 she was hired to work for the Today show. Her role was small and mainly involved reading commercials and making small talk, but she took that role and ran with it until she grew her reputation and responsibilities. 

Today

Walters on the set of the Today show.

She asked to be put on an assignment to travel with the First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, which propelled her career forward. Just 10 years later in 1974, she was named co-host of the Today show alongside Hugh Downs. She was the first woman to hold such a position for an American news network. In 1975 she won her first Emmy.

In 1972 she was a part of the press corps which traveled with President Richard Nixon on an important trip to China. After 11 years making her mark at the Today show, Walters left to join ABC where she became the first woman co-anchor of a network evening news program. 

In 1976, Walters began her famous series entitled Barbara Walters Specials. This is when Walters made her mark as a world renowned interviewer, interviewing everyone from Jimmy Carter to George Clooney. In addition to launching this show, Walters left ABC nightly news and joined 20/20 in 1979, where she stayed until 2004. In 1997 Walters also began cohosting The View. 

Throughout her career, Walters earned many awards and accolades, including induction into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame. 

Yahoo Money

Walters and President Richard Nixon on ABC's 20/20.

2014 was the end of an era. Walters retired from The View and all broadcasting she has been working on. She did however make some guest appearances and recorded a few interviews after her retirement.

On December 30, 2022, Barbara Walters died at the age of 93.

Barbara Walters set the standard for how journalists should conduct interviews while teaching the world about some of its most well-known figures with her own in depth interviews. She is loved and admired by many because of her incredible work.

As a young college students myself about to enter the work force in a year, I have so much admiration for Walters. She was a pioneer for women in journalism, and who knows what the future of women in journalism would have been like without her. 

She turned journalism from a field dominated by males into one that I would personally say seems to be dominated by women. The Today show and other network broadcasts have more female anchors than ever before.

Thank you Barbara Walters for paving the way for female journalists like me.

EOTO #2 Reaction

Gossip, Fashion and Film....

These are just three of my favorite journalism topics I was able to learn the history of during our EOTO #2 presentations. As someone who loves entertainment journalism, my topic for my opinion writing blog, these were the three types of journalism that really stood out to me during our presentations.

First I was able to learn about gossip columns. Gossip columns have origins in the 19th century, which is something I found very fascinating. When I think of gossip columns I often think of gossip magazines and blogs of the 21st century, but this presentation helped me learn that modern gossip columns were not the first of their kind. 

Wikipedia

The New York Herald featured early gossip columns

An early form of gossip column was started by James Gordon Bennett of the New York Herald. He originally sought out to write stories about American lives in order to show the British that Americans had established a civilized society. However, these stories ending up sounding like what we know today as gossip.

In the 1930s and 1940s was when "real" gossip columns,  like the ones we know today, started. The first official  American gossip column was called On-Broadway by the New York Daily Mirror.

Next I learned about the history of fashion journalism. The first known fashion magazine was started in 18th century France. It was called Cabinet de modes et Magasin des modes Nouvelles, which meant new fashions. Something interesting about this magazine was that they included information about different types of bedding. Another thing about this magazine was that it was accessible for the middle class.

Wikipedia

The Cabinet Des Modes featured different fashion items such as hats.

In 1867, fashion journalism became popular in the U.S. with Harper's Bazaar. In 1892 Vogue magazine was created by Arthur Baldwin Turnure. Harper's Bazaar and Vogue are still fashion magazines today.

Finally, I learned about film journalism. In the 1930s, film became a mainstream form of entertainment. In the 1980s, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert started a popular film criticism show called At the Movies. Roger Ebert was considered the biggest name in film criticism until his death in 2013.

IMBd

At the Movies was the first critic show of its time.

These are just some of the things I learned about a few of the topics that were presented for EOTO #2. I learned a lot from my classmates and really enjoyed hearing about different topics in journalism history.

EOTO: Theater Reviews in the UK

Theater criticism dates back all the way to ancient Greece when Aristotle's Poetics explored elements of, techniques for and his own "rules" for different works, which included theater productions. 

At that time, many theater productions were what we know as Greek tragedies. These plays were written by Greek legends including Aristophanes, Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides. However, over the years theater has developed into something even the Greek playwrights could not have imagined. Because of this, theater criticism has also evolved over the years. 

A large part of this growth took place in the United Kingdom because of how instrumental the U.K. and its people were in advancing the world of theater. After all, one of the greatest playwrights of all time, William Shakespeare, was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.

                                             Commonwealth Shakespeare Company
This is a portrait created of William Shakespeare.

There is so much history when it comes to theater, but I want to briefly highlight some major points about theater in its early years in the U.K. Theater really started making roots in England in the 10th and 11th centuries. A fun fact is that a lot of theatrical productions actually came about because of church services and wanting to tell stories from the Bible. Britain's first playhouse was built in Finsbury Fields, London in 1576. It had an incredibly original and unique name of "The Theatre." 

In the 16 years following this first theater, many open-air theaters were built in the U.K. During this time, there was no such thing as a fully enclosed theater, as most theaters are today because there was no electricity for lighting, so the sun had to be used.

In 1564, William Shakespeare was born. He wrote many great plays such as King Lear, The Tempest, of course the famous Romeo and Juliet. Many of these plays were staged at the infamous Globe theater.

                                                                                                              Christie's 
This scene depicts theater in 18th Century London.

In 1737, there were laws passed in Britain that prohibited sedition, profanity and libel. The Licensing Act of 1737 was one of these motion by the British government. This act made it so that only two theaters, the theaters at Drury Lane and Covent Garden in London, were allowed to put on plays. It also established a rule that all play scripts had to be approved by Lord Chamberlain before a performance could take place. 

This act greatly affected the still developing "world" of theater in the U.K. by censoring artists and creating what became known as two types of theater, those that were legitimate and illegitimate. 

Subsequently illegitimate and legitimate theater reviews were published. The 1700s were a difficult time for all journalists in England for that reason. It was a time characterized by censorship and little to no freedom of the press. With England as an example, it is no wonder that the United States established freedom of the press under the First Amendment within the Bill of Rights, which were ratified in 1791.

Even for someone considered the best playwright of all time, William Shakespeare still had his critics. English author Frances Meres lifted Shakespeare up in his work and said he was the best writer in comedy and tragedy of all time. 

A fellow playwright of Shakespeare's time, Ben Johnson, did not see Shakespeare as positively. He believed that Shakespeare' tragedies lacked the three fundamentals of classical drama, the unifying aspects of time, place, and action. Johnson also though Shakespeare's writing was not civilized enough and was too vulgar. 

                                                                                   Wikipedia
Hamlet Written was by William Shakespeare.

From studying Shakespeare myself, I will say this is true. However, the Reinesaance was a time characterized by indignity and vulgarity, so one cannot blame Shakespeare for writing this way. 

However, even Johnson had a level of respect for Shakespeare because it is said that he wrote a eulogy for him entitled, "To the Memory of My Beloved, the Author Mr. William Shakespeare." 

Another man named Robert Greene, would gossip about other writers, one being Shakespeare. He accused Shakespeare of plagarism for copying another writer's style.

One thing that was really different from criticism today was many of the critics wrote in books, not on newspapers and websites as articles we read today are in. However, in the later 1600s, the printing press rose to popularity and newspapers began circulating. 

                                                           review.gale.com
Hanna Kiiskilä graduated from the University of Turku.

Hanna Kiiskilä  of the University of Turku Fineland, analyzed criticisms from the 19th century, when The Times rose to popularity in the U.K. She described the theater criticism articles as "brutally honest." 

Kiiskila said that illegitimate theater reviews focused more on movement, visual, and musical features of performances where legitimate theater reviews evaluated more about the words actually being spoken by the actors. 

These honest reviews set a prescedent for even today's theater critics. Critics pride themselves on being honest and transparent in their works.

In the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, new types of theater very different from Shakespearean drama began to emerge. In the late 1780s, meoldramas, short scenes with musical accompaniment, rose to popularity. In the 19th century, pictorial dramas became popular because audiences enjoyed its historical accuracy. 

Cup and saucer dramas also became popular in the 1800s, which had plots that touched on serious issues on the day. These different types of theater allowed for different criticisms that stayed true to being honest.

                                      Hurst Media Company
The Sunday Times is a popular U.K. paper.

In the 1900s leading up to today, theater continued to keep up with the times and adapted to become more modern. Critics continued to keep up with the times as well. John Peter was the Chief Theater Critic for the Sunday Times from 1967 to 2010. 

Peter's work had the ability to influence people'e opinion on shows and whether or not people should buy tickets. He was just one of many critics of his time, others being Michael Billington of The Guardian and Michael Coveney of The Daily Mail. 

Jumping to modern day, an article by David Hurman of The Critic, stated in 2020, that as these great writers either pass away, he wonders who will take their places. 

He notes that the British press is on a decline and raises the question of whether or not theater criticism will stay relevant in our modern world. Only time will tell. Overall, I really enjoyed studying theater criticism in the United Kingdom.

EOTO: Reaction

 In class, we had the opportunity to listen to our classmates present their EOTO projects, each based on a different aspect of journalism history. It was a great learning experience for all.

One of the most interesting topics I learned about from my classmates was yellow journalism. Yellow journalism is the use of sensationalism instead of facts. Yellow journalism was often used in the later 1800s and early 1900s to entice viewers to read certain publications. 

yellowjournalismblog.wordpress

Left to Right: Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst

Reading yellow journalism was thrilling for readers because it was interesting, basically like gossip. However, it provided inaccurate facts, which really did a disservice to the public. Yellow journalism created a battle between Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst.

Joseph Pulitzer was a publisher for the New York World, and William Randolph Hearst published for the New York Journal.During the Spanish-American War, these two publishers would battle against each other to see who could write the most "sensational" news. They chose to to this instead of writing accurately and factually. 

Another thing I enjoyed learning about during our presentations was the penny press. These newspapers were cheap because they were produced in bulk. The name penny press comes from the fact that they were sold for just one cent. This is hard to believe in this day and age. Newspapers today are considered cheap when they are sold for a dollar.

ThoughtCo.com

Newspapers being printed in the 1850s in the Penny Press Era

The most important part of the penny press era, was that it made newspapers accessible to everyone. Newspapers used to only be affordable for the wealthy, leaving the middle and lower classes having less knowledge of what was going on in the nation and in the world.

This caused me to think about how much news and information has changed since the 1800s. The idea of being knowledgable about our world is something I think we take for granted in today's day and age. We can take out our phones and see the latest news and updates with the click of a button. 

Even before we had smart phones, news could be quickly delivered on the television. The earliest version of a "television" was not invented until the 1880s, and then it was something not widely available. It was not until the 1950s that the television became a part of many American homes. These ideas and history only highlight the importance of newspapers during the 1800s and early 1900s.

Overall, our EOTO presentations were very thought provoking and allowed me to learn more about journalism history.

Five Star Final

IBM

Five Star Final released in 1931

The movie Five Star Final starts off with people talking about Mr. Randall, managing editor of the New York Evening Gazette.  Mr. Randall is played by Edward G. Robinson.

It starts to become apparent that Mr. Randall likes to hire beautiful women. A gorgeous woman named Kitty Carmody, played by Ona Munson, walks into the gazette. She starts telling Mr. Randall's secretary, Miss Taylor played by Aline MacMahon, that she wants a job. She says to the Miss Taylor, who is being cold towards her, "I don't think you like me do you? Miss Taylor responds saying, "Don't worry you'll get the job alright." 

I found this conversation to be particularly interesting because it shows the sexism that existed in the 1930s, the time the film takes place. Miss Taylor was exactly right and without so much as a hello, never the less actual interview questions, Mr. Randall hires Jenny. This sexism continues throughout the movie. One of the character's later says he wants to "Warning: Don't Fall in Love with Your Boss." This insinuates that men are always the bosses and woman are always just looking for a man to be with.

Mr. Randall sends Jenny out on her first assignment seconds after hiring her. He wants her to find a woman named Nancy Voorhees. Nancy killed her former boss that she was set to marry about 20 years ago. Mr. Randall wants to revive this scandal in the newspaper. However, this assignment is not what it seems and isn't just any story for Jenny.

We get a look inside the Townsend household. Jenny Townsend is about to marry Phillip Weeks, played by Anthony Bushell. The two of them are with Jenny's mother Nancy Townsend, played by Frances Starr, and Michael Townsend, played by H.B. Warner. The four happily talk about the wedding. However, when Jenny and Phillip leave the room we learn that Nancy Townsend's maiden name is Voorhees. She is the one who murdered her boss. We also learn that Michael Townsend isn't actually Jenny's father. Jenny doesn't know anything about the murder or her mother and supposed father's past, and the town doesn't know about either of these scandals either.

TV Insider

Marian Marsh who plays Jenny

Later, Nancy finds out that her 20-year-old murder case is going to be featured in the newspaper. A terrified Nancy says to her husband, "They'll find us. You can't hide from a newspaper."

Ethical issues quickly develop within the newspaper. Vernon Isopod, played by Boris Karloff, visits the Townsend home with just Mr. and Mrs. Townsend present. He pretends to be the Dr. Isopod claiming to be the officiant of Jenny and Phillip's wedding. In their discussion, Nancy admits that her maiden name is Voorhees, and she asked who she thinks is Dr. Isopod for her advice on what to do about the upcoming news article. Isopod runs off because he got the information on Nancy that he needed.

Isopod reports back to Mr. Randall who agrees to publish about the Voorhees murder and the upcoming wedding, not realizing that this is Jenny's family.

This is an unethical practice for a reporter. Isopod should not have concealed his identity. He tricked the Townsend's into giving information that they thought they were giving to an officiant. Instead they were giving the information on their family scandal to the newspaper. They also gave Isopod a photo of Jenny, asking him not to include the photo of Jenny in the newspaper. Isopod defies those wishes and gives the photo to Mr. Randall. 

The Voorhees story is an example of yellow journalism. The newspaper cares more about scandal and sensationalism than presenting the facts. Nancy Voorhees committed murder 20-years-ago, so it no longer had a timeliness relevance. The newspaper just wanted to generate business by exposing scandal.

At the end of the movie Jenny going to the newspaper and screaming at them how they ruined her life and murdered her family. Just as she pulls a gun on them, Phillip runs in and stops her. He finishes what Jenny started and tells them that he will kill them if they ever print anything about his wife again. Everyone leaves physically unharmed, but the emotional damage is already done to both Jenny and Phillip and the newspaper members who realize their paper caused a double suicide.

The movie ends with Mr. Randall quitting the paper because of the emotional distress he was caused knowing he caused the chaos that came from the Voorhees article.

This movie is an example of how yellow journalism and deception within the press can negatively affect both the public and news publications themselves. It is for this reason that journalists should stay away from yellow journalism and report ethically and accurately.

EOTO: Reuters

Reuters is a company owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation with more than 25,000 employees worldwide. It is known for being a leader for news and journalistic integrity. It is the British "version" of the Associated Press.

Online News Association

Condensed Reuter's History Timeline

Link to Full Timeline

1850s- Paul Rulius Reuter founds a media company

• Reuter comes from Aachen to London to share about a news and stock price information service he has been running. He opens a London office in 1851

• His technologies he uses include telegraph cables and a fleet of carrier pigeons

1870s- West Publishing is founded

• Founded by John B. West and his brother Horatio in Minnesota

1890s- Roy Thomson is born

• Roy Thomson is the grandfather of the current Reuters chairman

National Portrait Gallery

Roy Thomson

1940s- The Reuters Trust Principles are born

• They are to safeguard independence
• A result of Reuters restructuring itself so that it is owned by the British National and Provincial Press, together with (in 1947) the Press Associations of Australia and New Zealand.

1950s- Thomson Newspapers grow in the UK

• Thomson acquires the Kemsley Group which owns other newspapers like the Sunday Times

1960s- The Times of London is acquired and merges with the Sunday Times

1970s- International Thomson Organisation Limited is formed

• Establishes headquarters in Toronto and two main operating subsidiaries in the UK and U.S.

1980s- Reuters becomes a publicly-quoted company

• Listed on the London Stock Exchange and NASDAQ as Reuters Holdings PLC

1990s- Reuters and Dow Jones partner to deliver business news services

2000s- Innovation continues and more work is done with foreign exchange

• The current chairman of Reuters is David Thomson

• The current president is Paul Bascobert

Breaking Down Reuters Trust Principles

Link to Principles

The Principles as They are Written by Reuters:

1. That Reuters shall at no time pass into the hands of any one interest, group, or faction;

2. That the integrity, independence, and freedom from bias of Thomson Reuters shall at all times be fully preserved;

3. That Reuters shall supply unbiased and reliable news services to newspapers, news agencies, broadcasters, and other media subscribers and to businesses, governments, institutions, individuals, and others with whom Reuters has or may have contracts;

4. That Thomson Reuters shall pay due regard to the many interests which it serves in addition to those of the media; and

5. That no effort shall be spared to expand, develop, and adapt the news and other services and products of Thomson Reuters so as to maintain its leading position in the international news and information business

World Atlas

Reuters Headquarters in London, UK

The Principles in My Own Words:

1. Prevents Reuters from only being operated by a single person or group. Reuters is committed to sharing all points of view.

2. Ensures that independence and freedom still remain a core value

3. Promises to share unbiased and accurate news

4. Will not only focus on the interests of the media but of the entire general public

5. Promises to adapt and change in order to remain a top news source

These are just some of the things that I learned through my research on Reuters. I am grateful I had the opportunity to study this powerful organization.