Martha Gellhorn EOTO

Martha Gellhorn was a well-known author, journalist, and travel writer in the 1900s. She specialized in war correspondence, covering almost every war and military conflict after World War II. 

Martha Gellhorn was born on November 8, 1908, in St. Louis, Missouri. She attended Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania but left school after her freshman year to pursue a career in journalism. 

Gellhorn got her first job working for the United Press in Paris during WWI, however, after reporting a coworker for a case of sexual assault against her, she left to travel Europe and write for other newspapers, even mixing it up a bit and covering fashion for Vogue for a little while. 

During this time, Gellhorn also wrote for several other magazines, including The New Republic which at the time was an up-and-coming magazine giving a start to young and talented journalists. After this, Gellhorn started working for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and toured the US during the Great Depression. 

Gellhorn got this position working for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration through her friendship with First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. Gellhorn lived in the White House with the Roosevelts for two months and assisted the First Lady with correspondence and her section in the Woman’s Home Companion magazine, creating a close bond that allowed her special opportunities and helped push her ahead in her field. 

Following her time with the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, Gellhorn went on to partner with Dorothea Lange to write about how the Great Depression impacted Americans and how it led to homelessness and hunger for many people. This gave Gellhorn a chance to report on difficult topics before she became a wartime correspondent which is what she was most well-known for. 

 

Gellhorn accepted her first war assignment covering the Spanish Civil War for Collier’s Weekly in 1937. 

Gellhorn and Hemmingway

In terms of her personal life during this time, she had an affair with Ernest Hemingway, an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist who would later become her second husband. 

Gellhorn married another man, T.S. Matthews, from 1954 to 1963 before she married Ernest Hemingway from 1940 to 1945. 

Gellhorn and Hemingway had difficulties in their marriage because Hemingway preferred her to stay home and read about the news, whereas Gellhorn was eager to cover war herself rather than hear other people’s accounts of it. 

The final straw in their marriage was when Hemingway stole Gellhorn’s credential from Collier’s Weekly and used it to travel to England and cover his own news. Not only this, but Hemingway was having an affair with another woman in England, leading Gellhorn to end her marriage. 

Martha Gellhorn was an incredibly strong, and persistent woman. She was able to cover almost every war and military conflict following WWII. Some of these wars included the Arab-Isreali War, the Vietnam War, and the Invasion of Panama. 

Gellhorn also covered many of the pivotal moments of WWII. This was incredibly impressive for her because, at the time, it was not common to see female journalists in war zones. During her time, Martha Gellhorn became one of the first female wartime correspondents. 

World War II

After covering some of these high-profile wars, Gellhorn reported on the Invasion of France in 1944. However, in order to report on the invasion of France, Gellhorn had to sneak onto a hospital ship off the British coastline and hide in a bathroom for the journey across the English Channel. On the hospital ship, she recorded conversations between wounded soldiers in order to emphasize the presence of the human spirit despite the devastation of the war. 

Following this, Gellhorn was arrested by the British military and had her journalism credentials revoked. However, Gellhorn was a very persistent and dedicated journalist and didn’t stop until she was able to be a wartime correspondent once again. 

In terms of her writing as an author, some of Gellhorn’s most famous books include The Face of War and Travels With Myself and Another. The Face of War was published in 1959 and written quickly after Gellhorn’s coverage of different wars. This book is now considered a classic anti-war book. Travels With Myself and Another was published in 1978 to present the best disaster stories from her time as a war correspondent. This book was the closest Gellhorn ever came to writing a memoir. 

After all the work she accomplished in her lifetime, Gellhorn died on February 15, 1998, in the UK. 

Pros and Cons of HPU's Summer Advantage

Summer Advantage is a 4-week program from June to July and is available to all incoming freshmen before their first semester at High Point University. Students earn up to 8 credits and get a feel for HPU’s campus, but with sign-ups for the 2023 program being open, the real question is, what’s pulling students in, and what’s driving them away? 

By Lauren Schena

Q News

Summer Advantage is a well-renowned program meant to benefit incoming freshmen. According to the HPU website, “Over 98% of Summer Advantage attendees say they would recommend Summer Advantage to all incoming HPU freshmen.” Yet, where does that lingering 2% come from?

Lack of Snacks 

According to an anonymous assessment of Summer Advantage from the 2022 participants, many students suggested that the program could improve upon the lack of dining options offered. 

One respondent wrote, “There should be more dining options in the summer. It was way too limited.”

Another student responded that there should be, “More options for healthy food. It’s been very hard to eat healthy if I want to eat on campus.”

During the Summer Advantage program, students are able to eat at Starbucks and the Cafe in Slane, and The Point Sports Grille in Wanek. In a typical school year, the amount of dining options for students is nearly tripled in comparison to the summer dining plan. 

One student, Robert Miller, participated in the Summer Advantage program in 2022. He noted that the limited food options were difficult for him as a diabetic.

"I think the food offered, especially for me being a diabetic, was not the best at all. Options were very limited and I found at the end of the day that I was not able to control my levels whatsoever," Miller said.

Wondering whether fewer dining options should steer students from the program? Below, Cailee Calabrese, a freshman at HPU, shares her positive experience from Summer Advantage. 

Work For What You Love

Calabrese participated in Summer Advantage in the summer of 2022. From her experience, Calabrese made friends, got ahead, and is now a student assistant working for the program. 

“Ironically enough, summer advantage really gave me an advantage during the school year. I had a leg up on all my classmates because I already knew the campus and people and how everything runs. It made me feel comfortable being away from home and being on my own for the first time,” Calabrese said. 

Calabrese talks about how grateful she was for her experiences and how they lead her to now work for the progrm during the fall and spring semesters. 

“It was a great first job experience getting to talk to people about something I enjoyed,” Calabrese said.

In her current position, Calabres attends freshman orientation events where she gets the opportunity to talk to incoming freshmen about her experiences at Summer Advantage and how much she recommends the program. 

“I wanted to share my experience with others,” Calabrese said. 

Calabrese emphasizes how it was not only her academic experiences, but her personal experience meeting friends and getting acclimated on campus that made her experience everything she hoped it would be. 

“It was challenging, the classes kept me busy and my mind occupied, but it also let me have fun and bond with my classmates. I made so many friends and made such great memories,” Calabrese said. “The experience was great.”

To hear more about the benefits of the program, below director Jim Scott speaks on the pros of Summer Advantage for incoming freshmen. 

Pros From a Pro

Scott highlighted the measurable growth students have shown coming into the program compared to when they left.

“We’ve had some students that had very low overall GPA performance in high school compared to other admits, but at Summer Advantage, the lights go on. All of a sudden they produce a grade point average that is substantially higher than they had in high school.” Scott said.

Scott mentions that despite the common misconception, Summer Advantae is more than just an academic program. 

“It’s more than just going to class and getting good grades, it’s making friends, and making yourself feel right at home at High Point University so that when the fall hits and five thousand people descend upon you, you don’t feel isolated and alone. You already have your crew, you know where you’re going, you know what you’re doing, and you have enormous confidence,” Scott said.

Visit the Summer Advantage website or your Panther Page for more details.

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Good Night, and Good Luck

In watching this movie, I was surprised by how easy it was to be labeled as a communist during the Red Scare. This was not only clear from Ed Murrow and Senator McCarthy's back-and-forth "broadcast battle," but also from less prominent characters in some of the smaller movie details. 

For instance, I found it interesting that Milo's interview, who was a Lieutenant in the airforce, showed how being labeled as a security guard for the communists could not only affect the person being accused but could affect their families and everyone they knew in their lives. Being accused could destroy a person and their entire family’s reputation in society. Milo talked about how his daughters would have to explain to their friends what happened to their dad and why he was being scrutinized. This is heartbreaking to think about because these are just children that were being affected by the Red Scare.

The movie shows just how dangerous it is to be a communist sympathizer by how little it takes to be scrutinized. One of the reporters in the room when Ed decided that he wanted to go after Senator McCarthy had to excuse himself because his ex-wife was a communist sympathizer and had gone to communist meetings, and even though they weren't married anymore, just simply having that connection would have hurt their mission to go after the Senator in the news. This was eye-opening for me, I didn't realize how quickly people could have their reputations tarnished. While watching the film, I thought of the Salem Witch Trials. Women were so quickly marked as witches and sentenced to death with little to no evidence, all it took was an accusation. As this move makes it abundantly clear from Ed and the Senator's back and forth, all it takes is one person to spread a lie for a person to be stuck under the communist stigma.

Another interesting aspect of the movie is how Joe and Shirley couldn't wear their wedding rings to work because at the time CBS was an anti-nepotism company and they couldn’t let anyone know that they were married. Before watching this film, I didn't know what nepotism was. While watching, I did a quick Google search and I learned that nepotism is, "favoritism (as in appointment to a job) based on kinship." This was interesting to me because I wondered if there were a lot of other couples doing the same thing as Joe and Shirley during this time.

When CBS caught Joe and Shirley being a married couple and they were given the opportunity for one of them to leave the office in order to save another colleague from being fired. I was surprised that the couple didn’t have a very angry reaction to this news, they seemed very civil and relaxed during the whole thing. It was almost as if they knew that this was going to happen eventually, I noticed.

Going back to the media feud between Ed and McCarthy, I noticed that from Senator McCarthy's end, he used lies to try and get the public to turn against Ed. Senator McCarthy fired back at Ed’s attack on him in the media by claiming that Ed was involved in communist propaganda in an attempt to ruin him and his reputation. Claiming, that if Ed was giving comfort to the enemy (the communists) he had no place being broadcast in people’s homes. McCarthy attempted to make people turn on Ed by claiming all of these things in his own broadcast and encouraging people to stand with him against Ed and his show. He claimed that Ed worked for the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World), which Ed said in his own broadcast was false. This just shows how desperate people were to protect their own reputation during the Red Scare and that they would throw another person under the bus to do it.

It was intriguing how Ed and Senator McCarthy went at each other back and forth through broadcast news, attempting to discredit what the other had said about them in their previous broadcast. This just proves the power of the news and how it can be used to influence a large number of people.

I liked how Ed was very strategic with how he responded to the Senator’s broadcasts. He would clarify what was true and what was false from the objections of Senator McCarthy. This was a very clear contrast from McCarthy's responses because all he did was fire accusations at Ed instead of defending his own reputation and name, this seemed very silly to me as I was watching because it made the Senator seem guilty of what he was being accused of.

It's clear that these differences in strategic responses from Ed and McCarthy are what set them apart in the eyes of the public, from the perspective of the movie audience at least, Ed was definitely seen in a brighter light. It became evident that this was also the perception Ed's audience was having when Ed got the Senate to investigate McCarthy.

The most shocking part of the film for me was that despite how successful the media attack against Senator McCarthy was, Ed's show was still greatly reduced in air time as a result of the controversial subjects he covered and the untimely suicide of his colleague, Don Hollenbeck.

I wish the movie would have ended with Ed prevailing above the Senator for successfully showing the public his true colors and retaining air time for his show, however, I feel like the actual ending was a better representation of how the Red Scare. That period wasn't a time of success, and even undeserving people were met with devastation and lows, unfortunately, just like Ed was.

EOTO 3 Reflection

From this week's EOTO presentations, I was surprised by how much new information I learned. Some of the most intriguing presentations to me were those about the history of anonymous sources, "gotcha" journalism, celebrity journalism, The Women's Pages, and Gonzo Journalism.

History of Anonymous Sources

Something I found interesting from this presentation is that some people argue that having anonymous sources takes away from the credibility of the press. 

Some of the examples this group mentioned, such as the OJ Simpson and Judith Miller cases, I've heard of in the past. However one of the cases, Watergate, was completely new to me. 

I learned that in this case, FBI assistant director, Mark Felt, met secretly with the Washington Post journalists and Woodward and Bernstein to confirm information that lead to the impeachment trial of the President, Richard Nixon, making Mark Felt an anonymous source.

I also learned a lot about Shield Laws. Shield laws protect journalists against the disclosure of confidential information and witnesses from having to give up certain information regarding their sexual history or things like that. Another important thing this group mentioned was that it's important to understand the difference between on-the-record, on-background, on-deep background, and off-the-record. Not knowing these terms could lead to losing trust in anonymous sources.

"Gotcha" Journalism

"Gotcha" Journalism is a method used by interviewers to discredit or distrust the person being interviewed. This method is used to damage public opinion and bring up topics that people don’t usually want to be brought to the public eye. This type of journalism can also be called "Ambush" journalism or "Hidden Camera" Journalism.

Some common examples of "Gotcha" Journalism that this group mentioned include when Paul Taylor asked Gary Hart if he ever committed adultery, he had, he was having an affair (this was the first known use of "Gotcha" Journalism), and when George W Bush was asked about cocaine use by reporters.

An interesting concept that these presenters mentioned is that in this kind of journalism, interviewees can’t escape the question most times because if they say yes, they look bad if they so no they're liars.

Some commonly used devices in modern-day "Gotcha" Journalism include hidden cameras, CCTV, Bodycam footage, undercover journalists, whistleblowers, leaked documents, and paparazzi.

Celebrity Journalism

This topic was very intriguing to me because I feel like most people think they already know wall they need to know about celebrity journalism, but this presentation showed me that there are still lots of aspects to it that I wasn't aware of.

Celebrity journalism traces all the way back to the first ever interview with President, John Quincy Adams when he was interviewed by Anne Newport, clearly, this kind of reporting has been around for quite some time. However, the meaning of celebrity is actively changing, and therefore, so is this kind of journalism.

During its early days, celebrity journalism was shifting in society as it was being consistently produced and consumed. However, being able to look into the private lives of celebrities came at a cost because this coverage took away from coverage of public life and politics and what some people would consider “more important” news.

In modern-day, celebrity journalism is found in tabloids, news publications dedicated to celebrities, social media, and celebrity news programs such as E! News and Entertainment Tonight. Also, with how developed technology and social media have become, social media has given a new sense of closeness to celebrity journalism and has become very difficult to escape.

The Women's Pages

I was also very interested to learn about The Women's Pages as a female writer. These pages were originally considered sexist columns that were trying to expand the female audience by reporting on commonly feminine topics. This was because male editors and writers didn't like seeing women in the newsroom and women complained that people weren't taking them seriously. Also, male writers had no interest in writing for the female audience, as a woman this is hard to hear because women did not deserve the treatment they were getting.

WWII brought more women into journalism, this connects to my EOTO project on propaganda because I made a point that during this time, propaganda inspired women to work jobs that were typically considered "a man's job," but as soon as the men returned they were forced out of these jobs and had to go back to the roles they were used to before the war. This is a very interesting connection and only strengthens the fact that WWII was a very powerful time for women.

I also learned from this presentation that The Women's Pages were originally confined to only talking about the Four F's: food, fashion, families, and furnishings. This only reinforces how sexist men made these pages when they were first created.

Gonzo Journalism

Gonzo Journalism is a kind of journalism that uses humor, sarcasm, exaggeration, and profanity to get a point across. This kind of journalism publicly displays the reporter’s own views, observations, and experiences. This kind of writing also allows the writer to insert themselves into the story. This is not typically seen in straightforward, journalistic writing and actually goes against the typical rules of journalism.

I also learned that the Father of Gonzo Journalism was a man named Hunter S. Thompson. The term was first used by a writer in the Boston Globe to describe Thompson's work. The term "Gonzo" itself has arguable origins. Some say it was taken from south Boston Irish slang after an all-night drinking marathon whereas others say that it was named after a 1960s song called Gonzo written by James Brooker.

Thompson's most famous piece was one that he wrote for Rolling Stone called, "Fear and Loathing." This piece was so famous that it was even made into a motion picture starring Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro. The plot of the film is about a journalist and his attorney struggling to report on a motorcycle race after a run-in with a series of drugs in Vegas.

Overall, what I learned is that Thompson didn’t just create a new form of journalism, he created a new form of thinking.

Press, Propaganda, and War EOTO

What is propaganda? Well, for many people, you've already seen some form of propaganda even if you're unaware of it. Propaganda is information, typically biased or misleading, that projects a particular political cause or perspective. 

Propaganda originally came from the Catholic Church in 1622. At this time, the church was losing some of its members and was aiming to recruit people from the New World. The original form of propaganda came from Pope Gregory XV when he created the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, otherwise known as the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. The congregation was used to send missionaries West in an attempt to get indigenous people to join the Catholic Church and to spread materials and ideas. These materials became known as propaganda. 

Propaganda has been prominent at many different times throughout history. Some of the most well-known propaganda comes from WWI and WWII. 

During WWI and WWII, propaganda was used to support the war effort, summon donations, encourage enlistment, and broadcast victories in the war. Two of the most well-known propaganda pieces from these wars include Uncle Sam and Rosie The Riveter. Both Uncle Sam and Rosie the Riveter symbolize strength and a sense of urgency to encourage citizens to join forces during the war.

Uncle Sam was created during WWI by a cartoon artist by the name of James Montgomery as a symbol of the United States. Uncle Sam was created based off of two previous figures in American folklore. One of them is Yankee Doodle, named by the British to represent the American colonists during the Revolutionary War, and the other one is Brother Jonathan, a rural American who always triumphed over his difficulties in any story he was a part of.

This specific poster depicts a patriotic Uncle Sam pointing his finger at the viewer with the quote "I WANT YOU FOR THE U.S. ARMY" printed below him. Uncle Sam was made to recruit soldiers for the U.S. Army by encouraging young men to enlist in the war. The artwork was made to look like Uncle Sam's finger is pointing at you from any angle that you look at it, giving the poster a more personal appeal. 

The Uncle Sam poster was seen and received by many people throughout WWI. About 4 million copies of these posters were printed and distributed between 1917 and 1918.

Uncle Sam was undoubtedly an effective tool during the war as an additional 2 million men volunteered for the war as a result and approximately $24 billion in war bonds were raised. The success of this propaganda poster comes from the explicit depiction of Uncle Sam and the message it was sending. The poster depicts Uncle Sam as a stern, aggressive, and persuasive figure meant to resonate in the minds of young men who haven't enlisted.

On a different note, WWII sparked a new kind of propaganda in Rosie the Riveter.

Before WWII, propaganda posters depicted women as "guardians" of the home and helpless victims of the war. Before the creation of Rosie the Riveter, women were heavily objectified in propaganda, making Rosie the Riveter such an important step for women. 

Rosie the Riveter encouraged women to accomplish the same tasks as men by portraying a strong, confident, female worker. Rosie is shown flexing her muscle with the text "We Can Do It" in a speech bubble above her head. This propaganda poster encouraged women to join the war effort and showed people that women are strong.

As a result, Women started working in the factories and doing men's work while the men were off fighting in the war. Women were working in factories, driving trucks, repairing airplanes, working as lab technicians, rigging parachutes, serving as radio operators, flying military aircraft across the country, test-flying newly repaired planes, and training anti-aircraft artillery gunners by acting as flying targets. 

After the war, women begrudgingly left work and went back to their homes. In addition to this, marriage and birth rates increased as a result of women returning to the lives they were used to before the war.  However, women had proved that they can do a "man's job," and within a few decades, it was common to see women at work.

5 Red Flags You're Dealing With 'Situational' Depression

Situational depression has become more and more common in 2020. Situational depression is often overlooked as being "minor," these falsities are why more and more people are dealing with this illness and don't even know it.

 By Caroline Bologna

 Q News

 

Depression is not a one-size-fits-all experience. For many, it persists for a long time or feels as though it’s constantly recurring. For others, it may only arise under specific circumstances and for a short duration. This latter condition is what many call “situational depression.”

 

“Situational depression is a depressive experience that is triggered by a traumatic event or a change in a person’s life, such as job loss, the death of a loved one or an unstable work environment,” said Greg Kushnick, a licensed psychologist in New York. “It is usually considered to be a normal reaction to a major life change or trauma.”

 

He noted that a depressive reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic can be labeled “situational,” depending on the severity of symptoms, when they started and how long they persist.

Adjusting to Adjustment Disorders

The term “situational depression” is more of an informal descriptor for what is often categorized as a type of “adjustment disorder.”

 

“When people think of situational depression, they are often thinking of adjustment disorders,” said Steven Bartek, clinical instructor of psychiatry at Michigan Medicine. “An adjustment disorder is a reaction to a stressor that is more intense than a typical emotional response, but not as severe as a full depressive episode.”

 

“I hear people use the phrase ‘situational depression’ quite a bit, and I honestly have mixed feelings about it,” he added. “It captures something valuable for many people, in that it seems to provide an explanation for the sadness they are experiencing. That can also be a risk, though, since people often minimize the severity of their depression when they think of it as just a reaction to a situation.”

 

Wondering whether your experience with depression is “situational” rather than something more long-term? Below, experts share some insights on the matter.

 

Is it Situational Depression?

As with other depression-related experiences, situational depression tends to involve a low mood and feelings of sadness, guilt or hopelessness. You may have more difficulty feeling pleasure or joy than usual, as well.

 

“The first step is recognizing that there has been a change in your mental health, Kushnick said. “If you’re unsure, consider asking someone who knows you well as to whether he or she has witnessed any changes in your mood.” (Or, if you’re worried about a loved one experiencing this issue, make note of the changes in their mood.)

 

Bartek emphasized that it’s perfectly normal and understandable to experience low moods, especially amid the challenges of 2020.

 

“People sometimes feel pressure to ignore negative emotions ― particularly in a world of perfect Instagram photos ― but during a year with a worldwide pandemic, economic uncertainty, a nationwide referendum on racial violence, and families divided along political lines, experiencing strong and sometimes negative emotions is normal and does not need to be a source of shame,” he said.

 

In addition to mood shifts, various behavioral changes are also associated with situational depression. These include changes in appetite and eating habits, poor or excessive sleep, bouts of crying, social isolation, losing your temper, rumination, loss of energy and more.

“People may engage in binge eating or reckless behavior, or ‘acting out’ ― impulsive or self-injurious behavior with substances, sexuality, etc.,” said Sue Varma, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical Center. “It becomes concerning when someone’s making poor decisions ― or has thoughts or behaviors of self-harm. This warrants immediate professional help.”

 

“Usually you will see emotional or behavioral symptoms within three months of a specific stressor occurring in your life,” Varma said.

 

Basically, you’re having an emotional response to a traumatic event or life change, and the extent of the reaction will exceed what is expected in response to that stressor. What constitutes an “expected” response can vary, depending on your culture, baseline mood and behavior.

 

In more extreme circumstances like the trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic, your baseline may shift, as everyone is expected to experience some mood and behavioral changes in this time. But it’s important to continue monitoring your psychological response and how it affects your day-to-day life.

 

Symptoms of Situational Depression

With situational depression, your symptoms can be severe enough to impair your daily functioning. You may have low motivation and difficulty concentrating.

 

“People usually experience low mood or anxiety that is intense enough to impact their functioning, such as not being able to focus at work or neglecting relationships,” Bartek said, adding that you shouldn’t allow the “situational” moniker to prevent you from seeking treatment when you need it.

 

Finally, the main item that sets situational depression from something more long-term is how long you’re experiencing the issue.

 

“Situational depression has a shorter duration than other forms of depression. Situational depression ends when the event ends, the person recovers or with the passage of time,” Kushnick said, adding that therapy can help reduce the severity and length of the symptoms.

 

Bartek noted that these symptoms tend to go away about six months after the stressor ends. Although disorders like situational depression usually don’t require medication for treatment, they can be serious and are associated with an increased risk for suicide.

And if the situation triggering the symptoms is a severe trauma, you also may experience other symptoms, such as nightmares, flashbacks or other problems associated with post-traumatic stress disorder. Talking to a professional can help determine the best course of action for your particular circumstances.

“The best ways to resolve an adjustment disorder are to stop the stressor (if possible) and to engage in therapy,” Bartek said.

 

“Throughout this year, the stress, uncertainty, and isolation that has come from the COVID pandemic have led to many people feeling symptoms of depression that are new to them,” he added. “If these symptoms are persistent and do not go away as they normally would, if they are impairing someone’s ability to function, and especially if someone develops thoughts of suicide, treatment should be sought. There are good, evidence-based treatments that can bring relief, even while this stressful situation persists.”

 

If you or someone you know needs help, call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. You can also text HOME to 741-741 for free, 24-hour support from the Crisis Text Line. Outside of the U.S., please visit the International Association for Suicide Prevention for a database of resources.

Related Stories:

Covid Depression Is Real. Here’s What You Need to Know. (New York Times)

What Is Adjustment Disorder? (U.S. News)

EOTO 2 Reflection

After watching all of the presentations on journalism heroes, I felt like I learned a lot about a number of different people from history and how they did the things they did. My two favorite presentations were the ones about Muckrakers and William Lloyd Garrison, which I'll go into more detail a out now. 

Muckrakers are journalists more commonly known for working in yellow journalism for being focused on accounts of economic and social corruption. I learned from this presentation that the term "muckrakers" was originally coined by former US president, Theodore Roosevelt whichI thought was a pretty interesting fact.

I also learned that yellow journalism and normal journalism differ in how their information is presented. I'd heard of the term "yellow journalism" before from one of the previous EOTO's but I didn't't completely understand what it meant. The difference between traditional journalism and yellow journalism is that yellow journalism is loud, super bold, and the information is very stressed or untrue

The understanding of yellow journalism was very important to this presentation as muckrakers initially used yellow journalism to get their information out but later transferred to a more professional journalistic style. 

This presentation also taught me a little bit about famous muckrakers and how their work influenced journalism as a whole. 

Ida Tarbell was an American journalist most well-know for exposing monopolistic actions by standard oil companies. The world came to not trust oil companies very much because of her book “The History of the Standard Oil Company” exposing the truth of its unfair practices. 

Another muckraker journalist, Lincoln Steffens, was most well known for writing about corrupt American governments. His publication, “Tweed Days in St. Louis,” focused on exposing big urban corporations and built his name in the journalism industry. 

Upton Sinclair was prominent for writing about food conditions that lead to new food packaging laws. From his research, he found out horrible things about the food industry, causing two new laws to be instated: the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. 

Sinclair's famous book, “The Jungle,” specifically exposed the meat packing industry and how meat was being packaged very badly. I was able to connect well to this part of the presentation because I've learned about "The Jungle" in previous classes I took in high school. From what I already knew preceding the presentations, it was easy to understand that the acts passed following the publishing of Sinclair's book make complete sense. In his book, Sinclair talks about how there would be rats everywhere, leaving their feces all over the meat, and how the conditions were so dangerous that people would lose fingers or even their entire hands cutting up the meat. The most gruesome part, sometimes when workers lost their fingers or hands, the severed limbs would get mixed in with the meat and get packaged up to be sold. 

Muckrakers lead to the beginning of investigative journalism because of how much they exposed within their communities.

In another presentation talking about the impact of William Lloyd Garrison, I was inspired by all the work he did in his career and how he came to be as well known as he is today.

William Lloyd Garrison was an abolitionist writer from Newburyport, Massachusetts. He grew up living a lifer of poverty not really knowing his parents until he went to live with his mother at the age of eight.

When Garrison was a young boy, he was sent to live with a baptist deacon with limited education. His being sent there was his mother's failed attempt at trying to provide for him and give him a better life than she could. Eventually, Garrison ended up back with his mother again at age eight where he immediately started working small jobs to try and provide for his family.

Garrison started off working as a shoe maker's apprentice and a cabinet maker, but the jobs didn't last too long because the labor was a bit too much for a child his age. Following this, Garrison got a seven year apprenticeship as a writer and editor working below Ephraim W. Allen when he was 13. This was a really impressive fact to include in their presentation, it shows just how hard Garrison worked even as a child to build himself a foundation in the journalism industry,

At age 20, Garrison bought his own paper, The Newburyport Essex Courant. This is also super impressive and speaks to how driven and motivated Garrison was. He had an early start to his success and this is something that most people aren't able to do, I really admire his passion as it's something that I hope to have one day when I become a journalist.

In another paper, The Liberator, Garrison's first issue focused on anti-slavery that denounced acts that prolonged slavery and stressed non-violence and passive-resistance.This was a really great point made in the presentation because it shows how hard Garrison worked to use his position as a journalist and his writing talents to advocate for a high-prominence issue that unfairly effected so many people at the time. Garrison dedicated his entire life to try and end slavery.

There was one point made in the presentation, saying how Garrison was dragged through the streets of Boston to promote the end of slavery and people were giving out rewards for anyone who got his head. This was very difficult to hear. Although it’s incredibly brave and noble of Garrison to put his life on the line for such an important issue in history, it’s incredibly sad to know how desperately people tried to stand in his way and prevent him from doing something that would eventually change the world and how we live as people.

Finally, my favorite part of this presentation was when the presenters said that Garrison was alive to see the emancipation and the 13th Amendment come into effect. I liked that he was able to see the result of all of his hard work, It’s inspiring to know that he got the reward of seeing what he did in his lifetime and how he really made a difference in the world. 

Journo Hero EOTO: Nellie Bly

     Nellie Bly was a female journalist from the late 1800 to the early 1900s. She was born on May 5, 1864 in Cochrans Mills, Pennsylvania. In her early life, however, she didn't go by Nellie Bly. "Nellie Bly" was a pen name that she used when she started her journalism career in 1885 as a reporter for the Pittsburgh Dispatch. Bly's real name was Elizabeth Jane Cochrane. The name Nellie Bly comes from a song by Stephen Foster that was popular in the 1850s.

    In her professional life, Bly started her career at the Pittsburgh Dispatch when she wrote an angry letter to the editor of the paper in response to an article he published called, "What Girls Are Good For." In the article, girls were belittled and made to seem worthless, when Bly took her anger out on the editor, he was impressed by her writing and gave her a job working for the paper.

    Bly's first articles that she wrote for the Pittsburgh Dispatch centered around the conditions of the working girls in Pittsburgh, the slum life, and other touchy subjects that weren't commonly addressed in news. As a result of these articles, Bly became known for being a sharp and concerned reporter. After these articles were published, the paper limited Bly to only writing articles on women. This raised frustration in Bly and caused her to soon leave the Dispatch to write pieces freely without any constrictions.

    After leaving the Dispatch, Bly traveled through Mexico from 1886 to 1887 to write articles on corruption and the conditions of the poor. As a result of doing this type of writing, Bly was kicked out of the country for the sharp criticisms in her articles, angering Mexican officials. 

    Upon returning to the US, Bly started working as a reporter for Joseph Pulitzer's New York World  in NYC in 1887. When she came to this new paper, she wanted to report on the immigrant experience in the US, but was turned down by Pulitzer. Instead he suggested that she write about the Blackwell Insane Asylum. This prompted one of her most well-known experiences that has been important in why we still study her work as a journalist today. 

    To get herself committed to Blackwell's Asylum, Bly had to fake insanity and make herself seem like she belonged there. Shockingly, her charade was not difficult to pull off. Bly took residence in a temporary home for women and imitated the women around her that seemed to be the most insane. The matron of the house she was living in had the police escort her to court where she was deemed insane and sent to do time in Blackwell's Insane Asylum. Once committed, Bly took careful note of her experiences as well as those of the girls around her to wrote her own expose called Behind Asylum Bars. In her expose, she discussed the poor conditions of the asylum and brought about a grand jury investigation to help them get the improvements in patient care the establishment desperately needed.  In the months following the publication of her expose, the poor conditions that she exploited were on the mend. Inmates were getting better living conditions and more nutritional food, the nurses and physicians that had been abusing some of the patients were fired, and translators were hired to assist the foreign born patients who may not have been mentally ill but just couldn't understand the people they were interacting with. 

    Following this experience, Bly also wrote her own book called Ten Days in a Mad House. This book was originally published as a series of articles in the New York World, however, Bly later combined them to be published as a book in 1887.

    Bly's career as a writer didn't stop there, however. in 1890, Bly wrote a book titled Nellie Bly's Book: Around the World in Seventy-Two Days after completing a 72 day long flight around the world to disprove Jules Verne, a man who had previously done the same trip in 80 days. However, Bly only managed to hold on to the record for a few short months. Soon after, business man George Francis Train completed the same journey in 67 days. 

    After her exposition, Bly continued to write. Some of her most influential pieces that she published following her journey include interviews with anarchist activist and writer Emma Goldman and social politician Eugene V. Debs and major stories such as the March of Jacob Coxey's Army on Washington, D.C. and the Pullman strike in Chicago both of which were fighting for workers' rights. 

    On March 11, 1904 Bly's husband, Robert Seaman, passed away. After his death, Bly took up his business, Iron Clad Manufacturing Company and American Steel Barrel Company. In this role, she was able to patent numerous inventions within oil manufacturing that have still remained useful today including the first practical 55-gallon oil drum. During this time, it was an issue having to transport oil in traditional wooden barrels and there was a need for durable, leak-proof barrels. On a trip to Europe in 1904, Bly observed the use of glycerin steel containers for oil and became determined to bring the steel barrel to American trade. Soon after, she obtained a patent for her design of the "metal barrel" which she designed the following year. She put her design on the market for American trade and taught people how to use it, greatly increasing the sustainability of oil during shipping. 

        Taking a turn from her role as a journalist, Bly took a shot at being a business owner. In the beginning, things were going well, she prioritized the welfare of her employees, gave them health care benefits and recreational facilities, and she seemed to be on the right path until things took a turn.

    The workers at Bly's company ended up committing fraud and Bly slipped up on her management of the finances. As a result, the company went bankrupt. 

    Seeing as being a business owner wasn't her strong suit, Bly went back to the New York Journal  to work again as a reporter in 1920. She covered news on WWI from Europe and continued to write about major issues effecting women. 

    Bly passed away on January 27, 1922 in New York from pneumonia. In a tribute to her death, famous newspaper editor Arthur Brisbane marked Bly as "the best reporter in America," and that's how she's always been remembered to this day.