By: Charlie Reisman

Published on November 17th, 2019

In the late 1800s the fashion craze that was sweeping through Europe and the United States was elaborate bird feathered women’s hats. The hats were “audacious, colorful and sometimes included more than just feathers – picture heads, wings and whole stuffed birds sitting astride the fancy lady’s head ” (Burns 2016). These hats caused mayhem as thousands of hunters were crossing the country killing millions of birds (Neuzil 2008). One of the most exploited areas for hunting birds was Malheur Lake. According to photographer William Finley, a pair of hunters wiped out the population of “white herons,” or egrets, in just a day and a half. A decade later, Finley returned to Malheur Lake and found the egrets were still gone. In response to this devastation, “Finley pushed for the creation of what is now the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.  It was the 19th refuge created by President Theodore Roosevelt” (Burns 2016).

People used media and technology to express their views on the devastation of the killing of millions of birds across the country and the world for hats. The Burns article does a great job of incorporating multiple platforms of media such as  pictures, writing, and video to fully encompass the viewer to the story. Similar to Max’s story on the changes of  journalism because of technology.  In his story he discusses the different platforms of media to use such as pictures, videos, radio, and social media. I thought it was really cool when he talked about the article on the endangered whale species and how multiple medias were used to stress the importance of the  issue. That story was very similar to the Burns story about how people use media and technology to fight against endangered species. In another similar story, they discuss how social media has helped save endangered species all around the world.  The story specifically talks about the killing of Cecil the lion and how social media influenced millions of people around the world to donate to the endangered species sites and to publicize the story to more people. Social media and all different forms of media have helped to save and support endangered species across the world.

Sources:

Burns, J. 2016. The Bizarre Bird Hat Fad That Led To Malheur’s Public Land Protections. OPB.com.  https://www.opb.org/news/article/bizarre-bird-hat-fad-led-to-malheurs-protection/

Kirkpatrick, K. 2015. More Than a Hashtag: Can Social Media Help Save Endangered Species? How Stuff Works.

https://animals.howstuffworks.com/endangered-species/social-media-help-endangered-species.htm

Neuzil, M. 2008. The Environment and the Press: From Adventure Writing to Advocacy. Northwestern University Press, USA.

The Ever Changing Field of Journalism: Technological Advancements