EOTO 2: Reflections On Other Students Presentations

Journalism's Presentations:

One of the first presentations that I listened to that captured my attention was music journalism. I interned as a music journalist at a zine, but I was not fully aware of the history so I just found this to be super interesting! What I learned during this presentation is that music journalism was super important. It didn't just report on sound it gave this once foreign culture a voice for the voiceless. From Rolling Stone's rise to the chaotic freedom to the early innovation of blogging about the next big artist -- this field has always balanced creativity with commentary. There's something exciting about that tension between having a personal perspective and being trusted to inform.

The next part of this presentation was investigative journalism. This definitely was different and new to me because as a journalism major discovering something that was just itching to be uncovered seems super imperative and then sharing that with the world was a super fresh idea at one point. Something that I took away was that "The Muckrakers" of the early 1900s weren't just writers — they were disruptors, pulling back the curtain on systems people were told to trust. Another thing that I took note of was how central women were to shaping its methods, even when they weren't always given credit. The goal was never to push an agenda — it was to expose truth, understand different viewpoints, and push toward accountability.

Lastly, the presentation that I would want to discuss is ashion journalism. As this is my specialty within my major and I am currently minoring in Fashion Merchandising this automatically took my attention to the center stage! What I found interesting and also what the presenter dove deeper into was that fashion journalism actually started in Renaissance Europe with engravings and French newspapers. Fashion journalism was a gateway to target women as an audience when publications were almost exclusively designed for men was quietly revolutionary. As photography entered the picture in the 20th century, fashion writing stopped being just descriptive and started becoming reflective.

Overall, what I took away from this is this: that journalism, in every form, has been about giving people something they couldn't easily access on their own — whether that's truth, beauty, or a perspective they hadn't considered. 

EOTO 2: The History of Comic Strips

 

Photo Credit: Melbirnkrant.com

Picture of the character "Yellow Kid"
that was an icon within comic strip history.

The Yellow Kid was one of the first ever culturally significant comic strips that came out in 1890. The character is this comic strip is named Mickey Dugan and was created by the artist named Richard Outcault. This is only used one comic page. The Yellow Kid was significant and was born within what was referred to as a newspaper war between two forces which at this time was the New York World and the New York Journal. They were mainly fighting over viewership, readership, prices and even promotions. Eventually Hearst from New York Journal lured Richard away New York World and hired another artist to continue the strip resulting in a bunch of competing papers that were released every Sunday. This feud was not just between the companies, but you could see this take place in the comic strip itself. Both artists would actually throw questions, concerns and poked fun at one another. The comments would be about originality and ownership.

There are actually a bunch of levels to this which results in a total of three. The first one is a self reflective humorous comment on Outcualts professional move (luring them away). Then, there is commentary of a bill passed in 1896 on liquor in New York. This showcases that they were poking fun at the legal loopholes that were happening in 19th century New York City.

Yellow Kid was known for embracing the ethics and racial tensions on that era in time. The pages were extremely dialect and had a bunch of misconceptions and went against normal publicity norms much like zines do nowadays as a way to fight against mainstream media. Yellow Kid was almost the precursor to this in a way and they were also trying to represent different types of immigrant communities. This offered an interpretive openness and allowed immigrant readers to also enjoy comic strips that may not have fully grasped full English Literacy at this point in time. This reflected the middle class in New York and the certain fears that were happening in the American nation.

Outside of Yellow Kid, comics are mainly known for fantasy, fiction and have a lot of humor involved in them too. Comics recently have become a vehicle for non-fiction writing such as journalism and is now a popular genre. Comics date all the way back to the expeinrces of marginalized groups and people affected in war communities and even international audiences.

Photo: itakehistory.com

A comic strip that has an example
of how Yellow Kid was used.

Comics were there before the invention of photography and an attempt to make things easier to read visually or poke fun at something. They were originally some manifestations in the forms of prints or broadsheets that were meant to convey factual information. Illustrated media was a great way to showcase the work of print media via journalists and direct affected the infamous newspaper comic strips that we know today.Another thing to note about the history of comics within journalism is that some of them involve framing. Framing is essentially the concept of leaving certain things out in order to be able to devise to a certain group of people that you are wanting to accurately represent.

Comics have always been around as a way to document real life events that may be too complicated to explain into words and are much easily stated in a visual context. A great example of this is from the September 11th attacks. However, there is actually na argument if comic strips can be documentary at all since it is a drawing unlike a photograph. Overall, comics serve as vital pieces of information within a newspaper by being able to successfully display and address graphic narratives in a compelling sense so that the reader can fully grasp the ideologies discussed in the paper. These comics go back centuries and showcases what journalism really is about and is a gateway for visual storytelling.

Citations: 

Haas, P. (n.d.). Urban America in the newspaper comic strips of the nineteenth century: Introducing the Yellow Kid.ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies. University of Florida. https://imagetextjournal.com/urban-america-in-the-newspaper-comic-strips-of-the-nineteenth-century-introducing-the-yellow-kid/

Schlichting, L., & Schmid, J. C. P. (2021). Introduction to Graphic Realities: Comics as documentary, history, and journalism. ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies, 11(1). https://imagetextjournal.com/introduction-to-graphic-realities-comics-as-documentary-history-and-journalism/

Movie Post - Five Star Final

Photo: Park Circus.com

 Image of the daughter confronting the company from Five Star Final

This 1937 classic film was definitely not what I was expecting — particularly when it came to themes such as suicide being as prevalent as they were throughout the story. I understand that journalism, by its very nature, sometimes requires stepping on people's toes in order to get the information needed. However, my personal reflection is that the newspaper company in this film went far too far. They began interfering in the relationship between a young woman and her soon-to-be husband to such a degree that it started to deeply affect her mother as well — and in my opinion, the mother's drastic actions were born out of genuine desperation and pain. By the end of the film, I felt a profound sadness watching the husband witness his wife reach her breaking point, unable to bear the suffering any longer, and ultimately deciding to follow her. I simply was not expecting that.

As drastic as it may sound, I genuinely believe this kind of media overreach is even more dangerous in today's world. With the rise of misinformation and sensationalized reporting, imagine having your name amplified by a massive news outlet. Imagine them invading your privacy, asking inappropriate and intrusive questions, and actively disrupting your relationships with family and friends. For the average person, that level of exposure would be deeply traumatic and could have a severe impact on their mental health.

Five Star Final is, of course, an exaggeration. But I believe it was ahead of its time — a deliberate warning about the power of the press and the very real consequences that careless, exploitative journalism can have on real people's lives. What you say, write, and publish about someone can cause irreparable harm, and the film does not shy away from showing just how far that harm can reach.

I also want to touch on the daughter's reaction near the end of the film, when she storms into the newsroom clutching a hidden gun, frantic and desperate, demanding to know where her parents are — as though she simply cannot accept that they are gone. Of course, by that point, both of them were beyond saving. But as a viewer, and from a pure acting standpoint, that scene is extraordinary. The actress perfectly captures the raw, unraveling emotion of losing not one, but both parents in rapid succession — and how grief, betrayal, and the destructive reach of irresponsible journalism can shatter a person's entire world in a matter of seconds.