Modernism = America

The statement that modernism is Americanismopened the lecture. It is commonly thought that Europe is th eold world.
1849 was a significant year in European historty, Karl Marx had thought this was when the proletiarian revolt would occur finally and the poorer would rise up against the borgouisese. Then in 1849 the Gold rush in California happened. There was amss immigration from Europe to the North Americas. people from Irland, Austria, Hungry and places which were not doing os well economically and suppressed fled in order to start a wealthier life. The Europeans were also activally encouraged ot go as there was a supposed shortage of white people.
New York become something of a mongral city. It was the centre where all the fleeing people headed to. it was considered a city of cosomopolitan and forwards thinking. Due to the sudden influx of forgign people the language become muddled. A New York dialect was created, it is often said that English is a very hard language to use. It is nonsensical and many different forms of grammer.
When William Randolf Hurst was in San Fransico in 1849 there were 150 different languages in use.
The newspapers would fill their pages with stories of how much gold had been found and how easy it was to get to. The first tabloid newspaper was the San Fransico Examiner owned by Hurst. The Examiner was the paper of the gold rush. Tabloids still have much of the same tatctics as before. Sensationalist stories and product placement still happen frequently.
The 1850's Americas was the settlement of the west. Hurst became wealthy by using product placements such as a story about the ease of diggin gup the gold next to an advert for shovels which he also would sell.
Newspapers were used to create the identity of a town. the local press enjoyed creating great hype about even small stories.
Another journalst around at the same time as Hurst was Pulitzer whos paper, when in competition with Hurst's now 2 papers created yellow journalism. Pulitzer was an investigative journalist who examined areas such as the oil industry, the rail network and farming. He advocated paper money and he was not a socialst as Marx was.
Hurst was involved in the so-called newspaper wars. When he moved to New York he entered a newspaper'war' with Pulitzer. Hurst made a copy of Pulitzer's paper and called it the New York Sun. He used simplified headlines, he told his journalists that if they were to make a story longer than 250 words they woul dbe sacked. The civil war that had broken out was the first major event to be photographed and this was when poster style front pages were starting to be used. Cartoons were also starting to become a part of the newspapers regularly. Pulitzer had the most popular cartoon strip but Hurts then brought 'Yellow kid' and over took again as having the most sucsessful paper.
Hurts was an expert on distribution which also helped his circulation numbers greatly. It was not always a ethical way in which he sold papers though. There were rumours of him having thugs to beat up people who did not buy his paper. He was an imperilist, he belived that America should have lots of power. He thought that Cuba, Costa Rico etc. should all become part of the usa.
He drivied the a practical way of approaching tabloid jounalism and reporting: 1- think of a story, 2- stand it up (gain evidence).