How The Other Half Lives

Riis was an early supporter of the power of visual image in journalism. He began by taking photographs of tenements in a new way; which exposed the horrible unexplored world in the slums. The article “Flashes from the Slums: Pictures Taken in Dark Places by the Lightning Process,” describes the effectiveness of the photographs taken by Riis or drawings during the delay of printing. Riis’s work was not just work for him it meant something, he was a humanitarian who wanted to let his well to do audience who the “other half “is.

“Another flash-light picture, though showing only still life, is eloquent of misery and destitution of those with whom imagination can people it, as each recurring night does people it, with the wrecks of humanity that form its clientage.”(p.156)

Many of the pictures taken during the day were fixed, real situations but organized in a way to get his point across, they a lot became his subjects for a photo shoot some may say. When he saw something that caught his eye it was hard not to prepare and pose the subject. This was the reality many people had to live through in the typical tenement; clothing lines, dirty, distressed, full of under cared for children. His work encourged others to not only take interest but also promoted the desire to help change their living conditions.

EFleurival

Can We Trust The Truth?

In chapter 4 of Ewen's "PR!," the philosophy and tactics of Ivy Lee are discussed. Lee, a revolutionary in the field of public relations, stressed the malleable and controllable nature of the truth.

Repeated and dispersed along the grooves of borrowed thought, something asserted might become a fact, regardless of its connection of actual events.
(p79)

If suitable facts could be assembled and then projected into the vast
"amphitheater" of public consciousness, he reasoned, they could become
truth. (p80)

While this seems to go without saying in contemporary society in which news outlets, backed by commercial interest, are constantly presenting us with stories that, while they may inform, serve a purpose of generating revenue and playing to that outlet's audience, it was a novel, new approach in his time. The question then is raised "what news can we trust?"

In my college experience I have often heard this answered different ways. Some attain that we are at the point that no news can be trusted. Some advise that we look to foreign outlets for our news, assuming the objective nature of an outside observer while denying the possible existence of bias in a foreign and thus competitive nation's view. I also hear that multiple sources must be consumed and the reader must then make their own decision.

While I agree with this strategy the most, I lament that to most and myself included on occasion, this is quite a task to follow through on. Many give up and knowingly accept truths that they know to be suspicious of but are to tired to verify. Worse still, some see how the system has evolved and submit to a learned helplessness, withdrawing from the quest for knowledge all together. It is to this end that this manufacturing of truth does the most damage.

A New Era of Modern Journalism

In the earlier years when newspapers first came out they were seen as revolutionary. However with this new idea came also the concept of public opinion. When we examine "Controlling Chaos" from "PR" by Ewen on the topic of this phenomenon Tarde, one of Lippmann's close friend and colleague explains this further by saying that the newspaper was basically "the centerpiece of a higher order of communication, one that would, in time, erase the conflicts that had marked human ineraction throughout history" and he was correct.

Like Tarde and Lippmann they were not alone, sharing similiar views and perception. Ferdinand Tonnies who was a German socialist, also expressed his opinion. Taken from Ewen Tonnies had thought that "The newspaper had become an unprescidented machinery for the manufacture and marketing of public opinion, a channel through which a particular faction could 'present its own will and the rational genral will'.

During the 18th Century when newspapers were in their infancy (Pamphlets, Newspaper, etc) they were noted for being revolutionary "extensions of public discourse" (Ewen 70) and now that they were being mass produced in this modern age it had "become an instrument of social order" (Ewen 70). As the modern press went on to grow many other socical scientists followed or rather "Embraced" the new modern public. Many people now had an outlet to shed new ideas and opinions which would spread throughout the world as time went on.

Social Injustice Continues To Affects Society !

According to the website, answers.com the term "Muckraker” is often indispensable to the well being of the society but “. . . only when they know how to stop raking the muck and to look upward to the celestial crown above them to the crown of worthy endeavor." Apparently the term muckrakers was first used by President Teddy Roosevelt. I found that this is an important term and for that reason I am going to analyzed it. Without Muckrakers (currently called investigative reporters) the problems in society can get even worse if the people are not aware of what is happening. Having said that, I agree the job of an investigative reporter is essential because it exposes all the problems that society faces at any level, political and economic. During the Industrial Revolution the average person in the street saw a lot of injustice and they did not do anything. A lot of the people only folded their hands and did nothing when families like the” Robber Barons” got very wealthy because they controlled almost everything. For that reason the wealth of the country at that time was concentrated in only a few hands.When the first muckrakers appeared they started to speak out and they tried to expose the injustice of this wealthy group of people that I mention above controlling so much. The muckrakers were investigating everything. They looked at all the children being exploited in the factories. They saw people working impossible long hours. They saw horrible treatment of the immigrants that were arriving in the United States. The muckrakers wrote about all the injustices and they tried to convince the people that something needs to be done about it. For the most part they were very successful because the government changed some of the laws and forced the owners of manufacturing places and big companies to treat their employees fairly and humanly. Obviously all of this did not come easy. A lot of the wealthy were mad because they believed that the muckrakers were causing chaos in society. Yes, is true the muckrakers were causing trouble. However, they were working in favor of the poor families that were suffering tremendously because they did not have the quality of life that the wealthy had.
For that and many other reasons I agree with Lippmann when he says in page 62 the following:

"...It is possible to work yourself into a state where the world seems a conspiracy and your daily going is beset with an alert and tingling sense of labyrinthine evil. Everything askew--all the frictions of life are readily ascribed to deliberate evil intelligence, and men like Morgan and Rockefeller take on attributes of omnipotence, that ten minutes of cold sanity would reduce to a barbarous myth."
All of these things happened during the industrial revolution because the government was not very sophisticated and the economy was run by the few and society was changing with the new immigrants that were arriving from Europe. Many in government were corrupt also. Today we need more than never the job of an investigative reported because we still see a lot of injustice being committed by people and the government. A perfect example of this is the huge fraud that was committed by Bernard Madoff, finally fully exposed by alerted investigative reporters!

The Have Nots and The Media

Throughout American history, various individuals have used Media (newspapers, telegraph, radio,etc.) to be the voice of the voiceless. Whether it was calling for the end of slavery in America to protesting against the reduction of T.A.P. (Tuition Assistance Program), the media has proved a means for advocating. As America was closing out the 19th Century, The population was growing at a massive rate. Urban Centers such as New York and Chicago were flooded with new immigrants daily. As a result of this massive immigration, places to live became hard to find. Resident buildings for immigrants were overcrowded due to the number of people living on top of each other. This housing problem became paramount due to the issues of health and sanitation which caused people to die from various diseases. One person who took a stand to display the conditions of the slums was named Jacob Riis. Riis was a well known photographer who would take photos of the slum houses in New York's Lower East Side as a way to illustrate the housing crisis affecting residents and new immigrants. The following is from the article, Flashes from the Slums: Pictures Taken in Dark Places by the Lightning Process:

It is a Pell street seven-cent lodging house, whose cots or beds or bunks or hammocks, partaking as they do of the characteristics of all three, are simply
strips of canvas stretched between beams, six feet apart. Mr. Riis has other
views of this place at night which are a revelation to those who are never there.

The snippet discussed this residence which basically had this long strip of material for residents to sleep on for seven cents a day. This kind of housing would cause the rapid spread of germs and diseases among those who resided there which would ultimately result in death. The goal of Riis was to have the upper classes in New York understand the extreme poverty that was taking place in the city. Riis' work in his time has become a stable in media today when it comes to exposing injustices within our society.

Today seems like yesterday

One of the main reasons for the American revolution was the hope that citizens at the time would be able to achieve the oppertunity of private and free enterprise. This was one of Democracies great promises. Many Americans had enormous dreams to open businesses of their own which would support them and their family. After awhile many Americans began to realize that these thoughts weren't as easy to achieve as imagined.

"Private industrial fortunes were being built, in large measure, through the crushing and absorbing of small-scale enterprises. With this, many among the middle class saw their own fortunes diminishing, their prospects dim. Though most among them struggled to maintain the appearance of doing well and some held stubbornly to a gospel of wealth--looking to captains of industry as models for emulation--a widening circle of middle-class life was beset by chafing anxiety."(Ewen, PR. pg. 42)

Does this sound familiar? People who are facing economic troubles pretending that nothing is wrong and spending beyond their limits. Our current economic situation is not much different today than that of a century ago. People today are living on credit and are to affraid or ashamed to cut back in times of crisis.

Truth and Opinion

In, 1908, during a time when there was a growing concern for government and corporate corruption Upton Sinclair stated:
“We are just like Rome. Our Legislatures are corrupt; our politicians are unprincipled; our rich men are ambitious and unscrupulous. Our newspapers have been purchased and gagged; our colleges have been bribed; our churches have been cowed. Our masses are sinking into degradation and misery; our ruling classes are becoming wanton and cynical ( Stuart Ewen,PR!, pg 49).”

So, how could these concerns be addressed? My belief is that circumstances don’t change until the people are willing to work for change. Henry Lloyd might agree with my statement for he believed that it was in the power of public opinion that social change could be forged. Lloyd proclaims that “publicity is the great moral disinfectant”. The problem here is how can the public unite over issues and form an opinion? The news might be a useful tool in informing the public, but can it be trusted? The news paper is a business in itself, perfectly susceptible to corruption.

Opinions are formed by truths, but what is truth? William James describes truth as an Idea. He states: “It becomes true, made true by events”. What I interpret this as, is that a corrupt business or government is not considered corrupt until it takes actions that affect the majority on an individual and personal level. When enough people are affected it is only than that public opinion becomes public truth. When this occurs, a fight for change or social reform can begin.

"Social Injustice"

During the Industrial Revolution minors were being hired to work in dangerous environments such as in mines, glass factories, textiles, agriculture, canneries, home industries, and as newsboys, messengers etc. The reason behind this is, because factory owners thought it would be an advantage to hire young children, so they can work long strenuous hours for low pay. However in 1916 many people that were against this enforced that the child labour law will be passed. Well known whistle blowers like, Jacob Riis and Lewis W. Hines both great photographers literally made this social injustice come to light. However, what is so mind boggling is that in today's society children are still being exploited to do dangerous jobs that only an adult can handle. Although its not as visual it still exists here in the United States and in other countries. What I liked about Hines and Riis is that they were both on a mission and used their talent to get there " Social Photography". A picture is worth a thousands words.

In fact, it is often more effective than reality would have been, because, in
the picture, the non-essential and conflicting interests have been
eliminated. The picture is the language of all nationalities and all ages.
The increase, during recent years, of illustrations in newspapers, books,
exhibits and the like gives ample evidence of this.

Very few people pay attention to this issue at hand, its a major social injustice, because young children only know what they are taught. Right now young girls are being exploited and made into domestic servants http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_childlabour.html. Even such brands that we wear today were caught going against child labour laws like Gap Inc, http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/10/29/gap.labor/. There needs to be an end to this exploitation. Furthermore the media needs to put a buzz out there in society to fight for young children's rights and promote more on foundations like UNICEF ( United Nations Childrens Fund).

Can "Truths" be recycled?

Stuart Ewen, author of "PR!", introduces the ideas of American philosopher William James, a free thinker who proposed a new view on what we as a public perceive to be the truth. Ewen states:

" Truth, insisted James, exists in a perpetual state of flux. It is nothing more than a by-product of human history, an intrinsic out-come of people interacting with their world and elaborating--or disputing--shared assumptions about its terms."(p39)

According to James, the truth is a product of the time era that we live in and reflects what we as a people believe in. Since time is forever changing and people are forever changing then so shall the truth . While this is so, history has a tendency to repeat itself. Though we as a people change, we tend to recycle some of the mistakes that we have made in the past. If this is true, can truths resurface like history resurfaces from time to time.

For instance, there has been talk that the recession that we are facing, shows signs equivalent to those of the great depression. In Monday's issue of Reuters.com, an article written about President Obama's views on the U.S. economy. According to the article, in a statement made by President Obama:

"This is not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill recession. We are going through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression,"

With such a statement, I raise the question, Are we starting to lose faith in our economy? The same faith that was lost in the economy during the great depression. If the answer is yes, then can it be proven that "truths" can be recycled.

Force of Public Opinion

"Force of Public Opinion."
Stuart Ewen's "PR!"

According to Bellamy's prophecy,

"It would be the force of public opinion-opinion bolstered by the instrument of reason - that would perform the task of remaking the world for the benefit of all humanity."

This very belief, that the common people are capable of taking part in a social circuit, where they can exchange ideas and give birth to "reason," is a very liberal idea for the 19th century America. However, journalists like Bellamy had this notion of "intellectual public forum," and this was not limited to him or the journalists, but this very idea of giving the public the power to play around with "reasoning" and "logic" was the central dream of almost every middle-class American. The reason that I quoted Bellamy out of Stuart Ewen's "PR!," is because, he brings out this very fascinating notion of allowing the public to sit together, which essentially can turn into a "public court." Furthermore, he says that

"deliberating upon the social facts and considering the requirements of humankind, an informed and intelligent "public" would be the agency through which a new historical epoch would be initiated."

The above belief, is clearly stating that the public is capable of giving birth to a era of "social enlightenment," only if they are presented with the truth. I believe that this idea is fascinating and would be visible in an ideal society, but unfortunately, today's public is not capable of engaging in such deliberations, because they are continuously brought up by this "one way" mass media, that has dampened their ability to question and reason anything that is presented to them. So Bellamy's idea is completely democratic in essence, but before something like that can be structured in our society, the people must be educated and informed.

Where Have all the Muckrakers Gone???

In Walter Lippmann's "The Themes of Muckraking" he explained the goal of muckraking and why it greatly applied to the industrial issues of the early 20th century.

"There is no other way of explaining the quick approval which the muckrakers won. They weren't voices crying in a wilderness, or lonely prophets who were stoned. They demanded a hearing; it was granted. They asked for belief; they were believed. They cried that something should be done and there was every appearance of action. There must have been real causes for dissatisfaction, or the land notorious for its worship of success would not have turned so savagely upon those who had achieved it....For muckraking flared up at time when land was no longer freely available and large scale industry had begun to throw vast questions across the horizon. It came when success had ceased to be easily possible for everyone."

I 110% agree with Lippman on the power of muckraking and why it greatly applied to the early 20th century. My concern is what happened to the brave crusading journalists who were willing to risk everything in order to expose the corruption that these money hungry business men were implementing on working class America? Lippmann stated how that muckraking became extremely accepted at a time when "land was no longer freely available and large scale industry had begun to throw vast questions across the horizon." Well I don't know if today's journalists have noticed but people are losing their jobs, homes, and self-esteem right now, while bankers on Wall Street are receiving $100,000 bonuses and many conservatives are attacking President Obama for wanting to decrease their yearly salaries to $500,000 a year. Where is the equality in that, and why isn't anybody exposing who is behind this?

I feel like we are reliving the early 20th century all over again. What helped make change during that time could certainly help now. If we had more journalists devoted to helping the working class citizens of America I think it would of been a lot harder for those bankers to have received those bonuses. The passion the crusading journalists had in the early 20th century has been swallowed up by big businesses owning the companies our journalists work for and not allowing them to speak out on the corruption behind the person' stamped signature on thier paycheck.

Look at the power of the media. All it takes is one article, or news brief , or interview on Oprah to grab the attention of millions. Americans will listen, because we want to know how we got to the bottom of the pit we're in . It just takes someone with the proper resources to get that information out to the public. That is what we need right now. We need journalists, and news stations, and reporters who have a passion, like the crusading journalists of the early 20th century, to better the struggling working class Americans of the early 21st century.

Ida B. Wells, Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell, Ray Stannard Baker WHERE ARE YOU??? Or atleast the journalists like you.....for you are greatly missed.

The Big Business Monster

Big businesses have always been a problem in the United States. They (big businesses) have been around since the late 1800s. The owners of these businesses, also knows as monopolies, always pointed out the m0re positive aspects of the big business, i.e. they will create jobs for the people and everyone will benefit in the end result. Though there are some positive aspects of the big business, the end result is always negative.

"While Lippmann continued to grapple with persistent patterns of corporate
excess, visions of impending social chaos and upheaval - a revolt of the
masses- had begun to modulate these concerns. Images of the people ruling were,
for Lippmann, assuming an air of menace. Ongoing middle-class hostility
toward big business - once understood as a constructive catalyst for
social reform - had now become, to Lippmann's increasingly conservative mind, an
inadvertent stimulus of social disintegration." ( Stuart Ewen,PR!, pg 61)

This problem with the big business still exist today. During this recession we are experiencing we can see the problems in out economic system. The government has bailed out many of out big business, many companies are laying-off people daily, and everything is becoming more expensive but wages stay the same. Though over a century has passed things are still very similar. Will America ever learn?

Imperialsim - Its Dangers and Wrongs

"From a speech delivered at the Peace Jubilee, Chicago, October 18, 1898"

I found many of these articles interesting and I would just like to take some short time to point out all the Cartoon drawings within this packet which were drawn with such detail and rather amusing. This one particular article focuses mainly on the subject of Imperialism.

Imperialism is a touchy subject and I found this article rather intriguing. We must take a look at the past, the track record so to speak, when dealing with the consequences of Imperialism. I think Samuel Gompers put it best when saying "Foreign war as a cure for domestic discontent" was the main tactics of tyrants and followers of Imperialism. I understand in this article that it was important for our country that there be no outsiders changing our civilization as stated in the article is was important for annexation not to occur. What was to stop other countries from sneaking in, immigration would be a problem. This is what we did not want, the Chinese, the Philippines, etc, influencing our country. How many lives would have to be lost as a direct result of this. We know from past experiences, taking from the article examples of, Waterloo and Sedan, that this kind of behavior can have dire consequences. However when we examine the human race and ancient civilizations we discover that early civilizations got started this way. So now that we have all evolved and there are borders surrounding our countries, nations, states, etc Its over right?....

The Middle Class and their "Search for Order"

America was founded on the principle that everyone was equal and that we all have the same goal of the pursuit of happiness. But over the course of two centuries, the American public were being separated into different class systems. As time passed, it was becoming obvious who was in what class.

"The period between the end of the Civil War and the first decade of the twentieth century was, for many people in the United States, a period of profound confusion and turmoil. From being a highly regionalized, preindustrial nation in which a relatively disparate middle class (comprised, for the most part, of Anglo-American merchants, professionals, artisans, and small landowners) set the social, economic, and cultural patterns of life in provincial towns and rural areas, America was now becoming society driven- in unison- by an expanding industrial behemoth. Large-scale national economic consolidation was under way in a wide range of industries, and- more and more- a small number of powerful, disdainfully arrogant men were dictating the social circumstances and life rhythms of countless people throughout the United States." (Stuart Ewen, PR!, page 40)

The majority of American citizens are categorized into the middle class. Rapid growth of different businesses and their monopolies were compromising the potential growth of the struggling middle class. It made the middle class question how well their way of life was. Large business were being built and it crushed small-scale businesses. The rich would continue to make more money, at the middle class and their expense.