In any nation mistakes have been the source of change. Whether it is safety or governmental reform or a revolution in the nation’s lifestyle and customs, those mistakes have made a lasting imprint on the minds of their people. The sinking of one of history’s maiden voyages, the Titanic, has made such impact on the American people; Titanic cannot be mentioned without stirring deep emotions for those who have perished. It is one of history’s most devastating catastrophes but it is also the first ship to send the new SOS distress call instead of the original CQD signal meaning “all stations: distress”. Titanic “was the ship of dreams, whose passengers scrounged up their life savings to purchase a ticket abroad the maiden ship” (Titanic). Constructed with millionaire suites and private promenade decks, Titanic “was the largest moving object ever made by the hand of man in all history” (Titanic). However, in its determination to make the journey across the Atlantic the fastest ever recorded, it ultimately sank to the bottom of the ocean, leaving behind a legacy still found in America today. Titanic’s infamous flounder has affected America’s culture in unthinkable ways; its legacy can be found in American media, the spawning of new technological advancements, and in the world’s current maritime policies.
News of Titanic’s sinking reached America quickly. It was front-page news for months and the first time that “a major news event was reported to the public primarily through electronic means, the wireless telegraph” (Titanic as Popular Culture). The US National Newspaper stated that “coverage of the Titanic disaster transformed New York Times into a global voice because of its integrity, accuracy, and immediate coverage” (Titanic as ...
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... the minds of the American people. It has transformed America in astonishing ways, and its legacy will continue to impact American culture for years to come.
Works Cited
Minichiello, Ray. "Titanic Tragedy Spawns Wireless Advancements." Audio UK Is the Webs Best Directory for Audio HiFi Dealers and Manufacturers in the UK. Web. 28 Jan. 2012.
"Titanic as Popular Culture." Media Awareness Network | Réseau éducation Médias. Web. 28 Jan. 2012.
Titanic. Dir. James Cameron. Perf. Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, and Billy Zane. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, 1997. IMDb. Web. 31 Jan. 2012.
"Titanic Disaster." Emergency Medical Paramedic. Web. 29 Jan. 2012.
Wikipedia contributors. "Changes in safety practices following the RMS Titanic disaster." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free–Encyclopedia, 13 Jan. 2012. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.
There are many ways the media influences society, but in the 1920’s the main source was newspapers. The New York Times was one of the most popular and prestigious papers of this time and also one of the most influential. Many people had fait in what they read and never second gu...
The story behind the titanic is controversial, some people have seen the movie but they do not know the real facts behind it. This essay is going to talk about the main factors behind the Titanic’s failure, the design, the manufacturer, materials, the crew, survivors, Cost of building the ship, the engine, as well as human errors, and the cause from different point of views.
... now, have changed the way America’s society operates; the way we think, and the way we express ourselves. For example, Elvis affected the music business, such as; its demographic for certain types of music and its amount of influence. John F. Kennedy affected the world of politics in the way that people look at the candidate’s personality as well as their qualifications, and plan if they are elected president. Television, though slow in development at first, had unlocked a brand new realm of entertainment, information, as well as influences on the future generations of America. In all, America wouldn’t be what it is today without these items in history.
April 14th, 1912, will go down in history as a day when disaster struck. It was the day the RMS Titanic hit an iceberg that after a mere four hours, caused it to sink to the bottom of the ocean, taking 1,500 people with it. But it wasn’t just one thing that caused this tragedy, and although there were many individuals and events that led to the sinking of the Titanic, the person most responsible for the sinking of this ship is Bruce Ismay. He chose not to put enough lifeboats on the Titanic, urged the captain to make the ship maintain speed while passing through ice fields, and allowed the use of cheap material and watertight compartments that didn’t reach high enough.
In every story, past or present, fantasy or reality, there is the good and there is the bad. These “forces” are expressed through antagonists and protagonists. More often than not, these antagonists and protagonists collide. In the well-known novel, A Night to Remember, by Walter Lord, there are quite a few antagonists. One that is prominently presented to the readers is society as a whole. The author wrote, “After all the Titanic was considered unsinkable” (Lord 64). As expressed in the quotation, the infamous vessel, the Titanic, was essentially known for its “unsinkable” reputation. But, it is simply impossible for a ship to be unsinkable. People are gullible. The human race, in its entirety, can be told something absurd hundreds of times,
Then on the fifth day of its journey, Titanic was progressing across the Atlantic. Captain Edward Smith had plotted a new course upon hearing earlier reports of ice from other liners, there were many more communications that day of ice in Titanic's path. On that very night of Sunday 14 April 1912. The sea was calm, the sky dark and clear, and the temperature was getting colder by the minute. With conditions like this an ice berg is very hard to spot. Then, at 11.40pm the lookout rang the alarm and telephoned the bridge saying "Iceberg, right ahead.” It was already too late to avoid the iceberg and Titanic began to start sinking within less than 40 seconds later, a series of holes appeared on the hull. It also took 3 ho...
Beginning with “Women and Children First”, this myth is reveals the spectrum of heroism of the men who were on the ship at the times of the Titanic’s sinking as well as their actions of obligating women and children to exit the ship first. Richard Howells writes about the two different types of heroism, active and passive, while some men such as the Captain of the ship acted upon active heroism while saving a child; other men were named heroes for passive actions of meeting their fate with death and allowing the women and children to exit the ship first. (pg.123). While this myth does not embrace the actual women and children leaving the Titanic first, it specifies on the men of the ship and their praise for being heroic by allowing them to leave the ship first. According to Howells research, the concern to save the women and children first was based on rulings of the old law of the seas as synonyms to the law of human nature. (pg.123). The context of this myth is in relation to Edwardian cultural and social beliefs, not a myth itself on women and children first. It’s a myth that demonstrates concerning values and expectations men should have in any occasion such as the sinking of the Titanic.
The struggle for survival by mankind can be found in many different settings. It can be seen on a battlefield, a hospital room or at sea as related in “The Open Boat”, written in 1897 by Stephen Crane. The story is based on his actual experiences when he survived the sinking of the SS Commodore off the coast of Florida in early 1897. “The Open Boat” is Stephen Crane’s account of life and death at sea told through the use of themes and devices to emphasize the indifference of nature to man’s struggles and the development of mankind’s compassion.
We have all heard about the Titanic. Either we have watched the romance movie or done our research in a different way. No matter where we get our information from we know the biggest parts of the tragedy. The ship Titanic crashed into an iceberg on a cold April night on the Atlantic Ocean while sailing its first trip. But haven’t you ever wanted to know more details about? Maybe how the people who were on it and survived? How could the situation be prevented? Couldn’t they have saved more people? Well in the book “A Night to Remember” it has details on the Titanic you have probably never thought of knowing. While reading the first chapter some parts really caught my attention. One was when people felt the jolt from the collision with the ice berg people didn’t suspect what tragedy was to come. A girl named Marguerite Frolicher, who was accompanying her father on a business trip, woke up with a jump since she was half asleep she was thinking about ‘little white lake ferries’ landing sloppily which made her laugh and thought to herself “Isn’t it funny…we’re landing!”. They really did...
On the day of April 12,1912, Titanic was thought to be the dream ship that could never be destroyed. Like today’s society, the passengers were enjoying the time of their lives and thought nothing could ever happen to them because everybody thinks it’s the “unsinkable” ship, or at least that’s what everyone knew it to be. White Star Line’s Titanic was called the “Ship of dreams”. As they loaded up, many passengers of different classes and sectors of society thought that, that was the ticket to their dreams. But as time pass by from enjoying too much, little do they know that the ship is sinking. Panic came through everyone’s head. That leaves me to the question, who is most to blame for the sinking of the Titanic
The tragic history of the Titanic, the sinking of the “unsinkable” giant of a ship shocked the entire world and contributed to important shifts in the mass consciousness of the people who lived at that period and assessed the achievements of new technologies and their role. However, one would have been hardly able to predict in 1912 that this tragedy, no matter how significant and meaningful, would leave such a deep imprint on the history of human civilization. The continuing interest in the fate of the great vessel has taken the form of various narrations and given rise to numerous myths enveloping the true history and, in this way, often obscuring the facts related to the tragedy. In recent years, this interest has been emphasized by the dramatic discovery of the wreck and examination of its remains. The recovery of artifacts from the Titanic and the exploration of the site where it had sank stimulated new speculations on different issues of the failure to rescue the Titanic and the role of different factors contributing to the disaster. These issues have been traditionally in the focus of discussions that caused controversies and ambiguous interpretations of various facts. They also often overshadowed other parts of the disaster story that were confirmed by statistical data and revealed the impact of social realities. The social stratification of passengers that reflected the social realities of the period and its class interests determined the chances of survival, with most of those perished in the Titanic disaster having been lower class individuals.
During the early 1900’s and late 1800’s precipitated the first true form of American media. The daily newspapers have been a part of the United States for some time, but during 1880’s and 1890’s reports such as Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst began to transform the newspaper in order for it to become the first major stepping stone in mass media. These publishers, especially Hearst, took advantage of the American involvement in foreign affairs. Hearst convinced his audience that sinking of a U.S ship during the Spanish-American War obliged a military response. Although Hearst was not the initial cause of the war, there was proof that he had the power to distort information, images and options. By World War 1, the media involvement increase by a tremendous amount.
As an amateur reporter for the school newspaper, I have had the opportunity to interview quite a variety of people on many different topics. One of my favorite questions to ask is, "What do you think has had the most influence on American culture?" Why do I like asking this particular question? The answer is simple: the variety and range of responses. While some answers are more interesting than others, I must say that I've learned quite a bit from all of them.
...go on April 7, 1997. The announcement of a new archbishop for Chicago is clearly news. So are stories that reaffirm our humanity and the resilience of the human spirit – the drowned high school student, the 13-year-old boy and the 10-year-old girl struggling to come back to life from the brink of death – and, certainly, the story of an innocent 7-year-old girl shot down during a senseless act of violence. Stories of missing boaters and heroic efforts to find them are news as well. Even stories of aberrant behavior and politicians falling from grace are news. However, as I stated earlier, it is important to supplement TV news with other sources of information, e.g., a reputable newspaper, a weekly news magazine, or a radio news broadcast, for more in-depth coverage, insights gained from different perspectives, and any stories not covered in the television newscasts.
The Titanic is known as one of the most remarkable films of the 20th century and won Best Picture of the Year in 1998. This film was based on a real event that made headlines all across the world including in the New York Times. This tragedy was not supposed to have happened. The ship was built to be indestructible. So the event was certainly unexpected and tragic. The New York Times ran a headline stating The phrase “TITANIC SINKS” was part of the headline for the Boston Daily Globe, the London Herald, the Baltimore American, the Globe (of Toronto), and, of course, The New York Times after the historic wreck of 1912 [Here’s what the article (sans headline) looked like in The New York Times, courtesy of the Times Machine. –D.A.]” (Amlen, p.1).