The Study On The Roles Of Personal Experience And External Factors In Establishing William Randolph Hearst’s Reputation And Stigma

William Randolph Hearst, a famous American newspaper publisher who built the nation’s largest newspaper group and whose methods profoundly influenced American journalism, is known by people, but on the other hand, it seems like that we don’t know him very well. We know him because of his appearance in the articles and books about the history of American news, in which he was mentioned as a famous publishing magnate. However, the majority of people know him nothing except his stigma as the magnate of yellow journalism. As a result of that, we should give a deep thinking on this phenomenon that the view about him is not only a complex and positive one, but also an oversimplified and negative one.On the basis of enormous materials and researches, this article will study the role of personal, political and competitive factors in the news market in building his stigma, and the association between his contribution and the special needs in the construction process of American journalistic professionalism. The study will start by analyzing his ideal of being famous, and show the changes in his fame.In this paper, it is found that William Randolph Hearst was eager to be famous in his early years and he struggled to make it true in his whole life. Eventually, he had achieved a lot in areas of news, politics, movies, collections and architecture, and enjoyed quite a reputation. However, along with his various fame earned by himself, there are numerous doubts and criticism from people, as a result of that, the public thought William Randolph Hearst was a businessman of yellow journalism who debased the standards of social conducts and posed a threat to freedom of the press, and criticized his yellow journalism. The reasons for this phenomenon listed as follows:First of all, from the perspective of William Randolph Hearst, his journey to be famous was not extremely perfect. At the beginning of his career, he earned his fame in the area by using yellow journalism, and established one of the largest newspaper groups in1930s. But he embarked on a road of political extremism because of self-expansion and capital interests, and thus, was criticized by people for this. Secondly, considering his experience, situation at that time, and the competition in the news groups and political conflicts behind William Randolph Hearst, it could be said that his counterparts and political opponents played an important role in adding fuel to the flame, which reinforced his negative image in the past half century.Finally, the construction of his stigma as "yellow journalism magnate" was closely related to the emergence of journalistic professionalism. At the turn of the century, American journalism was experiencing changes, in this context, individual’s desire to be famous promoted the development of journalism, and journalistic professionalism which replaced humanity in the news became the journalists’s sharp weapon to fight against the government, the public and advertising market. With his absence and retrograde motion in the construction of professionalism, the plight of self-identity, and yellow journalism in his career, William Randolph Hearst became a stepping stone for journalists to be famous.