During every pivotal event in history, the newspaper has been a tool for informing citizens, divulging political agendas, supporting revolutions, and spreading propaganda. As said often, knowledge is power. To have the power to inform is to be wary of the weight of words and how they are delivered. In the universe of Wicked (2024 and 2025), the Wizard of Oz maintained his regime by manipulating the Munchkin citizen’s perception through the spread of propaganda in public speeches, posters, and newspapers.
The first bullet point in a Journalism 101 lesson would be: always prioritize sharing the truth. The second? Maintain loyalty, above all, to the citizens. Journalism creates community and serves democracy. It may sound obvious, but if you hand this amount of power to authority figures with different perspectives of democracy, the truth can be shaped and distorted to fit their agendas.
From the very first scene in Wicked (2024) when the citizens of Munchkin Land are celebrating and singing “Good news, she’s dead!”, “The Wicked Witch is dead!”, the news are making themselves present and important. They are joyous at the news that the Land of Oz was rid of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West.
First, the basics: how did Elphaba become ‘wicked’?
Elphaba was born green and with powers as a result of being born out of wedlock. Because of this, she suffers through prejudice and discrimination all of her life. During the first day of orientation at Shiz, Miss Coddle, the headmistress of the university, attempts to wheel Nessarose away so that she can settle at school, much to both sisters’ defiance. Frustrated, Elphaba manifested her powers to prevent her sister from being wheeled away; therefore catching Madam Morrible’s attention and earning a spot at Shiz.
The Wizard of Oz, a fraud, was desperate to maintain his position as wizard-of-all. To be a wizard, power must be wielded, and he wielded none. In comes Madam Morrible, a sorceress and the Wizard’s ally, with her strategy to strengthen the Wizard’s regime and establish her own power. To advance their political agenda, they “trained” Elphaba to be the Wizard’s “Magic Grand Vizier.”
Once Elphaba discovered the truth about the oppression of animals and rebelled, Morrible instantly rebranded her as “wicked” to destroy her reputation and save the Wizard’s reputation.
His lack of magic was enough to drive him to search for other sources of power. And where did he find it? Through journalism.
Maintaining the Wizard’s Regime and Elphaba’s “Wickedness”
In the Wicked universe, there are two newspapers presented: The Shiz Gazette, as the primary student newspaper featured in the film and where campus gossip, social reputation, and student culture were discussed; and the Emerald Newspaper in Oz, which was used by the Wizard’s regime to manipulate public perception. This distinction is important; the Wizard deliberately chose the paper most accessible to all Munchkin Land to spread propaganda against Elphaba.
In both movies, scenes with newspapers appear flying around with headlines such as “Terror in the Skies!” and posters printed with “Run! Beware of the Wicked Witch!” were plastered all over the walls of the city of Oz.
By taking the citizens’ trusted source of information and infiltrating it with fear and lies, the Wizard maintained his agenda, and Madame Morrible’s plan to shun Elphaba worked even better.
At the end of the musical, Elphaba ends her story by faking her death and the citizens celebrate her supposed defeat. This scene shows how the official narrative becomes accepted truth, mirroring how the media can frame events to create heroes and villains. Power, whether through sorcery or information, is to be handled with respect and grace — otherwise it’s just a wicked use of knowledge.