Reel or Unreal History: Hearst Newsreels and the Production of the News
This dissertation examines the production and manipulation of the American newsreel by focusing on William Randolph Hearst’s influential approach to American journalism, his diverse partnerships throughout Hollywood, and his pressure on American politics at the beginning of the twentieth century. By engaging raw footage, newspaper advertisements, Hearst editorials, and the practices of competing newsreel companies, this project argues Hearst applied his journalistic practices to motion picture newsreels. Along with his printed papers, Hearst used his news films and Hollywood partnerships to forward his own interpretation of patriotism and Americanism. Newsreels play an important role in our understanding of the past and are often perceived as primary source material for students of American history. By complicating the authenticity of newsreel footage with established scholarship of Hearst’s motivations in “yellow journalism,” I study the manipulation of Hearst newsreels as an important contributor to the development and legacy of the American newsreel.
Hearst, Hollywood, Newsreel, Yellow Journalism, Film and Media Studies, United States History
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