Blog # 1 "Mightier than the Sword" (Chapter 1 Response)

We live in a country famously known as the "land of the free" and the "home of the brave."  All though none of us have been around long enough or even have living relatives that can tell us stories about how life was before we became an independent nation, we all know of the historical events that took place in the late 1700's resulting in the creation of the United States of America.  Chapter one in "Mightier than the Sword," titled, "Sowing the seeds of Revolution," explains how much of a roll journalism and the press had in inspiring colonists to stand up for their rights and fight for their countries independence and freedom from oppressive British rule.

While reading, “Sowing the seeds of Revolution,” it became very evident that Sam Adams and Tom Paine were two very important Journalists and had a huge part in the inspiration and assembly of their fellow colonists.  The writings of both men are said to have transformed luke warm patriots into fiery revolutionaries. 

“The Journal of Occurrences,” was an inter-colonial news service started by John Adams.  Adams’ journal began operating in September 1768, the same month that British troops arrived in Boston.  The Journal was organized like a personal diary with the dates of the articles in chronological order.  Many of Adams’ entries were stories about the brutal and inhumane treatment of the colonists by the British soldiers.  Some examples if the media that The Journal of Occurrences was offering to the public were stories including the attempted rapes of women and the beating and robbing of innocent men walking down the street by British militiamen.  These stories fired up colonists and turned many of the citizens who were ready and willing to accept the oppressive British rule and taxation without representation into patriots that were willing and ready to revolt.  Adams’ column eventually created enough of an uprising to convince the British officials to withdraw the militiamen from Boston in August 1769.  Although the press that “The Journal of Occurrences” was spreading helped the cause of John Adams and the colonists, there were many stories that were fabricated and there were many stories about the behavior of the British Soldiers that were simply not true.  This may have been considered wrong or immoral at the time, as it is today, but the people who knew what was going looked at the false media as a form of patriotism and a way to gain ground on what they had been fighting for all along. 

In my opinion, the ways of John Adams and the writer’s of “The Journal of Occurrences,” were wrong and not very respectable, but I could not hold anything against their fabrications due to the fact that it was for a good cause and their liberal Journalism lead to the beginning of what would eventually be the Revolutionary war, which eventually resulted in American Freedom.

         In January 1776, Thomas Paine secured his place in history when he published his pamphlet, “Common Sense.”  “Common Sense,” was Paine’s way to address the public and share his political ideas in a way that ordinary colonists could understand.  Using very plain English Thomas Paine spread his ideology from town to town and city to city impacting thousands of colonists and igniting a fire within the patriots who would soon become rebels fighting for their human rights. 

         In many ways Paine could have been one of the first people to use free-press (although the constitution wasn’t yet in existence) when he began to discuss colonial independence in his Pamphlet.  This idea was a dangerous one and many people advised him to avoid touching down on that subject.  This could be looked at as an early example of how even expressing ideas that might conflict with the governments main interests could cause an individual a great deal of trouble.  Paine addressed his ideas and desires to create an independent nation anyway and it’s a good thing he did, because it wound up sitting very well with a large number of colonists and eventually would take a big part in setting the foundation for what would become the American Revolution. 

         “Common Sense,” is one of the earliest examples of how journalism and the press can shape the thoughts and ideas of society and what a big impact that the media can have on our lives.  I believe that the same type of impact is taking place on the citizens of this country today in regards to the media.  We plan our entire lives based on what we hear in the news and what is projected to happen according to some very wealthy and powerful men and women.  This wouldn’t be a bad thing if the media wasn’t so biased, but unfortunately that is not the case.  Who knows what the right things to believe are anymore.  With more and more technology coming into existence, there are more and more ways to bend the truth and fabricate news.  Americans need a firm reminder regarding what this country is supposed to be and how we are supposed to act when it comes to politics, economics, socializing, and general humanity. 

Just as MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, The Journal News, The New York Times, etc shape our lives today, the early forms of propaganda and media shaped the first citizens of the United States of America.  In my opinion, the difference between the ways that the media shaped the public in the early stages of the United States and the ways that the media shapes our populations ideas and opinions today is very significant.  We are shaped today by the ideas and greed of the rich and wealthy where as our ancestors were shaped by people who were looking to better our nation.  We are shaped today by corporations who are paying their journalists to create based around the larger main idea of the company rather than their own opinions as smaller common citizens.  These are a few examples of the direction that the current media is taking us and where our leader's priorities lye.