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.