This was a time of mass immigration. After the Irish famine of the 1840s, and the failed revolutions of 1847 and 1848, millions fled to Europe. 1 in 10 died in the journey across the continent.
The American frontier thesis claimed that America has the right to expand their land, and tried to wipe out tribes and push Indians off their land. This led to the Indian Wars.
Hearst's father, George Hearst, was one of the tens of thousands lured to California by the promise of gold. He travelled 1,000 miles in 1850 to California-the more West you went, the more "American" you became, hence California was the heart of the Gold Rush. Hearst was able to dominate the new land on sheer force and bloody mindedness, rather than money and heritage.
George Hearst's hard work won him success in the mines, but he was more interested in a political career. He bought the San Francisco Examiner, rumoured that he won it in a poker game.
The early American papers, known as penny papers, were of 2 type: Political and Commercial. Political papers were used as propaganda, and commercial papers printed ship reports etc, they did not report on news.
In 1846, the New York newspapers organised the Associated Press-it needed to be objective because it supplied content for a variety of papers with widely different political alliance.
William Hearst took over the Examiner in 1887, and transformed it. The old Examiner had a front page filled with dozens of stories-a wall of text. Hearst reduces the stories, eliminated the adverts and doubled the size of the headlines. Above the masthead, he put endorsements and circulation figures. He also included illustrations: "they attract the eye and stimulate the imagination of the lower classes and materally aid compensation" meaning even people couldn't read could understand it. He also improved the writing, making it more focused and urgent.
The Examiner was pro-labour (Democrats), anti-capital, and anti-railroad. It supported the unions, but was occasionally guilty of virulent racism.
New Yorks growth was fuelled by:
- Cheap Labour: People had moved from extreme poverty and would work for anything.
- Urban concentration and new technology.
- Very low commodity prices-especially food.
Hearst went to New York, and acquired the New York Journal. At this time, Pulitzer was known as a newspaper genius, and had created a cartoon called the Yellow Kid. Hearst poached this idea in 1896, as there were no copyright laws. In response to this, Pulitzer had it copied by a different cartoonist, and so there were 2 papers, with 2 yellow kids. These were later known as the Yellow Papers, and started Yellow Journalism.
The Yellow Kid and his friends were clearly immigrants, but appealed to the working class (C2DEs).
The Journal and the World (Pulitzers' paper) even battled to solve crime. A body washed ashore in New Yorks' East River, and the Journal offered $1000 for clues of the mans identity or cause of death. Weeks later an arrest was made, and the Journal headline read: "Murder Mystery Solved By The Journal"
Investigative journalism was known as muckraking during this period, and was started by Nellie Bly, who pretended to be insane to uncover how patients were treated in the madhouse.
The Spanish War
In 1897, as the insurrection continued to build in Cuba, Hearst sent one of his best reporters there. The reported complained in a letter to Hearst that he had "not heard a single shot fired or seen an insurgent". The illustrator was also bored and wanted to go home, sending a telegram to Hearst stating: "Everything is quiet here. There is no trouble, there will be no war." Hearst replied: "You create the pictures, I'll create the war". However, this is highly disputed, as Hearst later denied it.
One of Hearst's major achievements was the rescue of Evangelina Cisneros, the daughter of a rebel leader who was imprisoned for refusing to sleep with a Spanish captain. The rebels were fighting against the Spaniards, who were sending people to concentration camps. Hearst petitioned to free her, but failed, so sent a reported to bribe the Spanish guards and free her. He brought her back to America and Hearst had her photographed with the President.
The war Hearst promised was caused after the USS Maine mysteriously exploded in Havana Harbour, killing 260 crew. Hearst believed the Spanish attacked the ship, which caused the war.
The day after the Maine sunk, the Journal broke the million circulation mark with the headline "A splendid little war". Hearst released rockets from the roof to celebrate the declaration of war, and offered $1000 for the best war strategy. The Spanish War was a huge success for the Yellows.
The events that led to the declaration of war against Spain in 1898 provide a revealing view of the forces shaping foreign policy as the nation entered the 20th century. America's long tradition of isolationism gave way to a seemingly irresistible impulse. Hearst creates the models for modern tabloid journalism later copied in the UK by the Mail, the Mirror and the Sun.
Sources:
HCJ Lecture Notes
www.google.com
www.wikipedia
www.kidport.com/reflib/.../calgoldrush.htm
