Yellow Journalism- A Shame Game!

Begin from the Beginning!

The term ‘Yellow Journalism’ was coined first during the Spanish-American war in 1898. Two competing newspapers, in order to increase the sale of their respective papers tried to sensationalize their findings of the War. Hearst, the owner of ‘New York Journal’ took the opportunity to publish articles on brutality & cruelty showered by America proving its involvement in the war. He sensationalized his pieces to fit the reader’s interest and made a boost to his newspaper sales.

Similarly, during World War 1, American newspapers tried to create pre-war hysteria by publishing false reports of German troops cutting off the breasts of Belgian nuns.
This term came into existence owing to ‘The Yellow Kid’-  which was a cartoon created by R.F. Outcault and was used by Hearst (owner of New York Journal) & Pulitzer ( owner of New York World) in order to sensationalize stories and discredit the stories of other newspapers. Thus, today we use the term ‘Yellow Journalism’ to refer to the sensationalized & exaggerated news that are a result of unprofessional & unethical practices.

Present Context & Reasons

Let us look at some slogans, an olden story claims that Hearst remarked, “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.” The slogan of the Fox News ironically delivers the message-“We report. You decide.”
Due to cut-throat competition in the market, in the pursuit to gain maximum readership and to retain the top positions in the market, newspaper agencies & channels paint it all yellow. They use catchy titles and sensationalized junk feeds to increase the sales and curiosity of people.

‘The Politic’ in February 2012 published, “As a consequence of increased competition in the digital battleground, journalism has shifted towards provocative and controversial thought pieces.  In order to combat a hemorrhaging audience, mainstream media has turned towards opinion journalism as the new frontier.”  Newspapers generally fill up junk/tabloid pieces about the celebrities or the film industries which fairly interests people more. The paparazzi and the source reports are responsible for exaggerated these news pieces on celebrities. News items like-Jennifer Anniston dismissed reports of how “miserable” she is &  Kim Kardashian couldn’t fit in her wedding dress and used a fake picture on the cover are basic & common examples of Yellow journalism.

Not only do they falsely report, newspapers also create hypes & panics. Constant reports about the Ebola virus in United States created a huge panic about the disease. Hypes such as the ones that come around during the elections & exaggerated opinions on the statements of celebrities or politicians certainly cause biases & false images.

The need of the moment is that the readers must be aware & smart enough to sense the yellow undertones in the stories with exclamation marks and repeated full stops. Period.

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