The North Star

 Over the years, people have used the power of the press to expose and shed light on the horrors happening to the people of America. One of the significant issues that newspapers covered during the time was the issue of slavery. The point of slavery sparked the abolition movement, and with that came many abolitionist newspapers like The Liberator, The Emancipator, and Alton's Observer. While these newspapers just listed were very influential and essential for their time, none were written by black men or women; all three were written by northern white men who were sympathetic to the plight of slavery. The lack of black voices and stories in the abolitionist movement was very few, mainly because many African American people at that time could barely read or write. Hence, they had difficulty articulating their words for a large crowd to understand. This gaping hole was helped filled by Frederick Douglass and his newspaper, The North Starr.

While the North Star was a critical and influential newspaper of its time, we must first go through Fedrick Douglass' history before discussing it. Douglass was born a slave in Talbot County, Maryland; while his birth is unknown, many historians think it was either 1817 or 1818. Douglass escaped slavery in 1838 by boarding a train, eventually leading him to New York. While in New York, Douglass learned how to read and write, and with these abilities, he became a well-known abolitionist and p
teacher, he would also go on to publish The North Star newspaper.

    The North Star was founded in Rochester, New York, on December 3, 1847. Douglass took significant inspiration from the above newspaper, The Liberator, published by William Lloyd Garrison. The problem, however, with The Liberator, in Douglass's eyes, was that it was wholly written and published by a white man, and Douglass thought that a white man does not really know the plight of a slave while Douglass on the other hand, a former slave, does. The inspiration behind the naming of the newspaper was during these times, many slaves fleeing used the North Star as guidance to know where the north was since many states in the north had banned the practice of slavery. 

    When The North Star was first starting out, it was a weekly newspaper that sold for around $2, which was well above average since most yearly subscriptions to a paper were around $8-$10. The newspaper was only four pages long, with the fourth page entirely of ads. While the price was a significant barrier for many people, Douglass could still get around 4000 weekly readers. His readers were international, too, since people from Europe and the Carribeans read his paper. The North Star, however, was not a financial success for Douglass; just a year after starting the paper, Douglass had to mortgage his house just to keep the paper running. Then three years later, in 1851, he merged with The Liberty Party Paper to make The Frederick Douglass' Paper. In 1859 Douglass left for Europe to go on a speaking tour, and this departure effectively marked the end of The Frederick Douglass' Paper.

   While The North Star only lasted for four years and The Frederick Douglass' Paper only for eight years, these papers were unique in their approach by presenting black voices positively, and the author is a former slave. The impact of these papers was felt all across the union, with many people that read this being able to see and read stuff for black authors, possibly for the first time. These newspapers helped humanize black people but, most importantly, the slaves so that people could see that slaves were humans too and didn't deserve the lifestyle that was forced upon them.

They Won't Forget

    Since the dawn of the daily press, many people have long wondered how newspapers help shape what we think is the world around us. One of the most popular forms of newspapers "influencing" or shaping the public is a trial by the media. A trial by media is the impact of television and newspaper coverage on a person's reputation by creating a widespread reputation of guilt or innocence before or after a verdict in a court of law.  There have been notable examples of this with the OJ trial, the Mendez brothers, and, even more recently, the Amber Heard vs. Johnny Depp trial. These cases were massively televised and covered, lending the way for heavy media scrutiny and the reporter's opinions. The impact of the trial by media is shown heavily in the film. They Won't Forget. In the movie, the D.A. Andy Griffin, with the help of reporter William Brock, used the media to help get Griffin a big win in court to help boost his political career. Throughout the film, Brock and Griffin single out Robert Hale as their main scapegoat and use all the media influence they can to get him prosecuted.

    One of the film's first examples of media manipulation is towards the beginning when the police arrest Tump Redwine, a black school janitor. When the media caught wind of this, they put in the newspaper "Negro held in suspicion" as the headline. While negro was the "appropriate" term for African Americans at this time, the problem with this headline is at the time, whenever a black person was accused of a crime, they were always seen as 100% guilty in the eyes of people no matter the evidence especially if the crime was against a white woman which this one was. The newspaper knew what it was doing with this headline it could have been a man arrested and being held on suspicion, but the newspaper wanted the people to know it was a black man so they could demonize him. Later in the film, this headline is actually used to the cops and Griffin's advantage because they essentially intimidate Redwine into saying Hale was the murderer and if he chose not to, he would take the blame, and sadly at that time, a black man would likely lose that trial almost all the time.

    Another angle that Griffin used was that of the north vs. south. Hale was from New York and moved south to teach at a college. Even though the Civil War has long been over, the south still holds a lot of resentment toward the north. The south thinks the north thinks they are better than the south just because they won the Civil War; this way of thinking has turned to hatred of people up north. We see this, especially with Hale, with how they treat Hale, especially the name-calling they attack him with just because he is from up north. At the film's beginning, we see that Hale is still learning the southern ways since he was teaching on Confederate Memorial Day, which is usually a day off. The north vs. south is played up even more in the media when Hale's lawyer is also from the north, and the newspapers keep forcing the fact that Hale and his lawyer are from the north. The press says you are a "traitor" if you support Hale; since he is from up north, all southerners must be against him, or they are not true southerners. This way of regional thinking was prevalent; people were proud of their roots and origins. Especially after the Civil War, the south wanted to maintain its culture and identity, so they safeguarded and even made regional holidays like Confederate Memorial Day. 

    In the end, Griffin and Brock's strategy worked. Hale was sentenced to death, but on the way to his execution site, the governor decided to commute his death sentence and instead just punish him to life. Sadly, however, the people think Hale deserves death, so they abduct him from his train and kill him. Following his death, Hale's wife meets with Griffin and Brock, and in the meeting, she tells them that they are responsible for having her husband killed, not the mob. The mob was just a puppet of the media at that point; they were so mad that their sister was killed that they would just believe anything, even if there was no reason behind it, so when Hale became the scapegoat of the trial, of course, they would accept it especially since no other newspapers were even publishing conflicting viewpoints. Griffin and Brock might not have made the killing blow to Hale; they definitely played a massive part in his murder.

    People back then and even now are so susceptible to media manipulation we hear one thing on the news and take it as truth or an absolute fact. While the news will likely not lie to us, they will word questions and events in specific ways to make us think one way or another. Now with the advent of social media, this problem can be easily fixed by us diversifying our new sources; if we look at sources on both sides of the issue, we will eventually find the truth in the middle while it may take some more work on our part it is better than us speaking confidently on a topic we know nothing about. Some sites and sources can even help us see how biased and credible the news source we read, listen to, or watch is.

Political Cartoons

    The Each One Teach One that I found really interesting was the history of political cartooning. I always thought political cartoons were a new development made within the last 100 years, but I was very wrong. Political cartoons were made in 1720 with the collapse of the South Sea Company. I researched to see what was so special about this collapse that inspired the first political cartoon. The South Sea Company collapse is one of the world's foremost economic collapses. At that time, King George took control of the company in 1718, and with this "purchase," the company's stock grew astronomically, but the company's overall profits were the same. Even people within the company were encouraging others and, at times, bribing others to purchase stock. Then in 1920, the company bought the United Kindom's national debt, which was 32 million pounds at that time, for 7 million pounds, and the idea was that the company would pay for the debt with its ever-increasing stock sales. In August of that same year, however, the stock price plummeted 80% overnight, and with many of the population owning stock in the company, people were ruined. Sorry if that little blurb was extensive, but it does make sense why this was the first instance of political cartoons; this event combines bribery, corruption, and a substantial political figure in the king, and it was widespread enough that almost everyone felt the effects of it.

    Continuing on the idea of political cartoons, another thing that I found fascinating was the five elements of a political cartoon. They were symbols, exaggeration, irony, labeling, and analogy. While I must admit I am not a massive expert on political cartoons, I did not know how much time and effort really goes into making a good political cartoon because while they may look straightforward and childish at face value, they all hold profound meanings behind it if you take the time to look and analyze.

Why I Want to be a Journalist

    The history of me wanting to be a journalist is a short but simple one that I only fully knew some years ago. Growing up, funny enough, I was not interested in sports in the slightest my father would always watch football, baseball, and basketball in the house 24/7, it felt like, but personally, I did not care for sports in the slightest. All of this changed when in middle school, my father took me to my first basketball game, a Washington Wizards game. At the time, I still did not understand how the game of basketball was played, but I fell in love with the atmosphere; the constant cheering, booing, and sway of emotion were communicated through every fan, and that is something I thought was very cool.

    While sports was my passion at this time, I still had yet to think of sports journalism. So over the years, my dad and I progressively went to more and more Wizards games; we even went to some Redskins games at times, a professional football team now called the Commanders.  What caught my eye was a sports debate show called First Take. On this show, the two hosts, at that time they were Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith, would debate about the previous night of games and what they thought the implication of a win or a loss was. I became very interested in these sports debate shows. I would watch them all the time, and even as I watched the games, I could imagine the commentary about the game the next day. Even today, I watch shows like First Take, Undisputed, and Get Up. 

    My first taste of hands-on journalism would be in high school. At my high school, I helped work at my school newspapers from my sophomore all the way up to my senior year, while my junior year was a little work since COVID shut a lot of the stuff down. While working at my high school newspaper, I mostly did the sports section covering the games and doing a post-game report. The paper was small, so I did a lot of work but still had some help in this area. I had a fun three years helping make my school newspaper; this experience propelled me into the journalist scene.

    While my future is still uncertain to me in what areas of sports journalism I want, I know I want it to be somewhere in the sports world. Maybe in the next ten years, I will not even be a journalist scene, but as of right now, I am excited about what the future holds and who I might become.