Are you Proud of your Past?

For my Race, Gender and Media class, which has led to a lot of contemplative thinking, we were required to research our family history, or genealogy. One of the questions we were asked to answer has remained on my mind since completing the project: are you proud of your past?

My recent past: yes. Being a strategic person, I feel accomplished that I have stayed on track with my career path. I have built and maintained important relationships in my life and work to make a positive impact on the communities around me.

My ancestral past: kind of. I'm related to the Mather family, some of the earliest political and religious English leaders to come to what is now the United States. Their work in government, establishing democratic laws while incorporating Chrisitan faith, and as journalists, printing news and political thought, makes me proud. Their involvement in persecution of "witches" involved in "witchcraft", however, does not make me proud.

And now my History of Journalism class is making me question the past of my journalism predecessors (obviously college has been very thought-provoking for me).

I am reading about how the work of Pulitzer and Hearst, two of journalism's most highly-acclaimed journalists, led to the start of the Spanish-American War. They both printed inaccurate information about what was happening in Cuba through their newspapers, the New York Journal and New York World.



Hearst, with his mounds of money from his father, reportedly paid people to get engaged in a hot air balloon or to capture a grizzly bear with cameras nearby so that his newspaper would have the most sensational coverage. Their competitive relationship led to a race to see who could initiate the most public fury over what would become the Spanish-American War to receive the highest newspaper circulation numbers.

When the war was over, Pulitzer is recorded as saying that he didn't even believe in the war, or have evidence as to what he was reporting, but he printed misinformation to compete with Hearst's paper.

This is just one example of how journalism has not held up to its ethical obligations. There are other aspects of the industry that are more recent that also make me concerned: the focus on opinion journalism and sensationalism that confuses viewers with hard news.

Journalism, altogether, makes a positive impact on society. It is, after all, the fourth estate of our democratic society. However, learning about my past, both as an individual, and as a future professional journalist, makes me even more passionate about maintaining my ethical values and upholding the standards of the journalism industry in my future career.

Evaluating where you came from and where your profession evolved from is positive and enlightening, and I recommend it for everyone.