William Hearst, Marconi, and Armstrong's contributions to mass media

Mass Media Society

WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST: THE PRESS KING

It is always the contribution of a few good men which goes on to impact the whole of the society. The reason that these people are able to have such a profound impact is due to their endless struggle for a cause or for something in which they truly believe.

One such person has been William Randolph Heart, the founder of the Hearst Corporation, or "The Press King," his rise in the world of Journalism is truly remarkable. Born in 1863, and graduating from Harvard, by the end of the year 1887, William Hearst had become the owner of the San Francisco Examiner (William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951), n.d.).

His quick success and rise was partially favored by the family's wealth earned through the mining industry. However, Hearst decided to separate his path from his families and took this course. During his years in Harvard, he even interned with the renowned Joseph Pulitzer, however the relationship turned into one of rivalry in later years. However, the influence of Pulitzer on the young Hearst is much apparent in the way he took the approach of Sensationalism for his paper as well ( Great Projects Film Company, Inc., 1999).

"Expansion" was always a favorite term it seems with Hearst, and is much obvious by some of the choices he made. One such choice was the purchasing of the New York Journal in 1895, only 8 years since he began his first Publishing endeavor. It was through this paper that he entered into a competition with Pulitzer's Publication, "The World," however, the means employed to get an edge in this competition were not always ethical. These means included pulling away staff from "The World" to his own papers and copying the style of the Publication ( Great Projects Film Company, Inc., 1999).

However it was the Cuban War which was a very defining moment in the history of this rivalry. Hearst and his Publications in many ways manipulated and sensationalized the news in favor of the Cubans. This sensationalism was then termed as the "Yellow Journalism" since these sensationalized articles were on the same page as the cartoon "Hogan's Alley, a Sunday comic featuring a wise-cracking urchin in a yellow smock, the Yellow Kid" originally appearing in The World. The Cartoons done by the artist R.F. Outcault, was taken away, however, by Hearst and The World was forced to hire a new artist to do the same cartoon, thus making two versions appear of the cartoon in two different newspapers (Giessel, n.d.).

Both the newspapers were much disgraced and criticized for their role in promoting the war to boost their circulation. However, what cannot be denied are the efforts that Hearst put in to report the entire War, going to the extent of even chartering a yacht and after equipping it with the proper machinery and a few reporters, headed off to Cuba so that he can report from the field (Wierichs, n.d.).

Hearst has been described as a reformer, and as a Journalist, he always considered what was best for the Paper and their success. It was this concern that made him hire some of the best writers and cartoonist, including names like Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce and Jack London (San Francisco Examiner, n.d.).

His Expansion theme continued to take under the Hearst wing 28 more publications, which included names like Los Angeles Examiner, Boston American, Detroit Times and even Cosmopolitan (William Randolph Hearst: A biography, n.d.).

The personality of William Hearst has inspired many in the Journalistic world and even people beyond that. He has been the subject of movie topics like the famous Citizen Kane and has truly been a force to be reckoned with in the Journalism World. While his approach has been new and even a bit odd at time for the majority to understand, there is no doubt that he had the sense of a true businessmen and a reporter. William Hearst didn't stop their however and continued the expansion of his empire to even include radio stations and movie companies (William Randolph Hearst, n.d.).