Definition of Yellow Journalism is in The First Amendment Encyclopedia.
Yellow journalism and yellow press are American terms for journalism that presents little or no legitimate news while using eye-catching headlines for increased sales.Techniques include exaggerating news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism.The term yellow journalism is used to decry journalism that treats news in an unethical fashion.[3]
The term is mostly used in the U.S.In the UK tabloid journalism is defined as journalism characteristic of tabloid newspapers, even if found elsewhere.Other languages.Some Russian terms are derived from the American term.The practice of paying sources for information without verification is called checkbook journalism and is a common source of such writing.Mainstream media outlets in some countries consider it unethical.In contrast, tabloid newspapers and tabloid television shows rely more on sensationalism.[4]
W. Joseph Campbell describes yellow press newspapers as having daily multi-column front-page headlines covering a variety of topics, such as sports and scandal, using bold layout, heavy reliance on unnamed sources, and unabashed self-promotion.The term was used to describe some New York City newspapers.A surge in sensationalized crime reporting was one aspect of yellow journalism.[5]
In the mid-1890s, the term was used to describe sensational journalism in the circulation war between the New York World and the NY Journal.Historical usage refers to the battle from 1895 to 1898.Critics accused the newspapers of sensationalizing the news in order to drive up circulation.In 1898, an English magazine noted that all American journalism is not yellow, but up-to-date.[7]
The editor of the New York Press came up with the term.The term "yellow journalism" was first published by Wardman but there is evidence that it was already used by newsmen of that time.The term was never defined by Wardman.Wardman twisted "new journalism" into "nude journalism".The expression "yellow kid journalism" was used by Wardman in reference to the popular comic strip which was published by both Pulitzer and Hearst during the circulation war."We called them Yellow because they are yellow," the paper stated in 1898.[8]
After making the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the dominant daily in that city, Joseph Pulitzer purchased the New York World.The New York World was filled with pictures, games and contests that drew in new readers."Was He a Suicide?" was a headline on a crime story."Screaming for mercy."The only other two-cent paper in the city never exceeded four pages, and Pulitzer only charged readers two cents per issue, but gave readers eight and sometimes 12 pages of information.[2]
There were many sensational stories in the New York World, but they were not the only ones.The World was put in the service of social reform by Pulitzer because he believed newspapers were public institutions with a duty to improve society.
The World became the highest-circulation newspaper in New York after Pulitzer took it over.Older publishers began to criticize the World, harping on its crime stories and stunts while ignoring its more serious reporting, which influenced the popular perception of yellow journalism.The World was attacked by Charles Dana, editor of the New York Sun.[13]
Pulitzer's approach made an impression on William Randolph Hearst, a mining heir who acquired the San Francisco Examiner from his father.While studying at Harvard, Hearst read the World and decided to make the Examiner as bright as Pulitzer's paper.There are no comments at this time.
The Examiner devoted 24 percent of its space to crime, presenting the stories as morality plays, and sprinkled adultery and "nudity" on the front page.The Examiner ran a headline about a hotel fire after Hearst took over.They leap madly upon the Splendid Pleasure Palace by the Bay of Monterey.Leaping higher and higher with desperation.Madly Riotous through Cornice, Archway and Facade.Rushing in Upon the Trembling Guests.The Breathless Fugitives look upon the scene of terror.The hotel is now a heap of ashes.The Examiner sent a special train to Monterey to get full details of the disaster.The Arrival of the Unfortunate Victims on the Morning's Train is a History of Hotel del Monte.[16]
One of his early pieces about a "band of murderers" attacked the police for forcing Examiner reporters to do their work for them.The Examiner increased its space for international news and sent reporters out to uncover municipal corruption.
Examiner reporter Winifred Black was admitted into a San Francisco hospital and discovered that indigent women were treated with "gross cruelty."The entire hospital staff was fired.[17]
With the success of the Examiner established by the early 1890s, Hearst began looking for a New York newspaper to purchase, and acquired the NewYork Journal in 1895, a penny paper which Pulitzer's brother Albert had sold to a Cincinnati publisher the year before.
The larger the circulation base, the better, as Metropolitan newspapers started going after department store advertising in the 1890s.The Journal's price was kept at one cent and it provided as much information as the other newspapers.The approach worked, and as the Journal's circulation jumped to 150,000, Pulitzer cut his price to a penny, hoping to drive his young competitor into bankruptcy.
The staff of the World was raided in 1896.Many World employees were willing to jump for the sake of getting away from Pulitzer, who had become an extremely difficult man to work for, because he had grown increasingly abusive to his employees.[18]
The papers were similar despite the fierce competition between the World and the Journal.Both were Democrats, both sympathized with labor and immigrants, and both invested enormous resources in their Sunday publications, which functioned like weekly magazines.[19]
The first color comic strip pages were included in their Sunday entertainment features, and some theorize that the term yellow journalism was invented there by the New York Press.The Yellow Kid, a comic strip revolving around a bald child in a yellow nightshirt, became popular when Richard F. Outcault began drawing it in the World in 1896.Pulitzer asked George Luks to continue the strip with his characters, giving the city two Yellow Kids.The use of "yellow journalism" as a synonym for over-the-top sensationalism in the U.S. started with more serious newspapers.
"The Right to Privacy", published in 1890, was considered the most influential of all law review articles, as a critical response to sensational forms of journalism, which they saw as an unprecedented threat to individual privacy.The recognition of new common law privacy rights of action is thought to be a result of the article.
The United States entered the Spanish–American War due to sensationalist stories about the terrible conditions in Cuba.The majority of Americans did not live in New York City, and the decision-makers who did did rely on newspapers like the Times, The Sun, or the Post.In his memoir, James Creelman said that Frederic Remington told him that there would be no war in Cuba.Creelman claimed that Hearst asked to remain.You have to give the pictures and I'll provide the war.No one has found any evidence of the story being true.Emily Erickson is a historian.
The telegram story has been dismissed as unlikely by historians....The spirit of unabashed self-promotion that was a hallmark of the yellow press is reflected in the hubris contained in this supposed telegram.[25]
After a rebellion broke out in Cuba in 1895, Hearst became a war hawk.Cuban virtue and Spanish brutality dominated the front page.The newspaper readers of the 19th century did not expect his stories to be true."Newspaper reporters and readers of the 1890s were less concerned with distinguishing between fact-based reporting, opinion and literature," said Michael Robertson, a historian.[26]
Pulitzer didn't have the resources to keep the story on the front page.The yellow press covered the revolution extensively, but the conditions on Cuba were terrible.The island was in a terrible economic depression, and the Spanish general sent to crush the rebellion, herded Cuban peasants into concentration camps, leading to hundreds of Cubans' deaths.He ran "How do you like the Journal's war?" a week after the United States declared war on Spain, after he had clamored for a fight for two years.He has a front page.President William McKinley never read newspapers like the Journal or the New York Evening Post.According to journalism historians, yellow journalism was mostly confined to New York City, and that newspapers in the rest of the country did not follow their lead.The Journal and the World didn't get a lot of attention outside of New York City and were not among the top ten sources of news in regional papers.Piero looked at 41 newspapers.