Nasty little printer's devils spew forth from the Hoe press in this Puck cartoon of November 21, 1888. Puck was America's first successful Humor magazine known for its sharp humor and colorful Cartoon Caricatures satirizing the political

Yellow journalism is a pejorative reference to journalism that features sex scandals, scandal-mongering, sensationalism, or other unethical or unprofessional practices by news media organizations or journalists. Words and phrases are pejorative if they imply disapproval or contempt Journalism is the profession of writing or communicating formally employed by publications and broadcasters for the benefit of a particular Community of people A scandal is a widely Publicized incident that involves Allegations of wrongdoing, disgrace or moral outrage Sensationalism is a manner of being extremely Controversial, loud or attention grabbing It has been loosely defined as "not quite libel".

The term originated during the Gilded Age with the circulation battles between Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal. In American history, the Gilded Age refers to major growth in population in the United States and extravagant displays of wealth and excess of America's upper-class during Joseph Pulitzer ( English pronunciation PULL-itser; April 10, 1847 He sought a military career but was turned down by the The New York World was a Newspaper published in New York from 1860 until 1931 For other people named William Randolph Hearst see William Randolph Hearst (disambiguation William Randolph Hearst I (April 29 1863 &ndash The New York Journal American was a Newspaper published from 1937 to 1966 They ran from 1895 to about 1898 and can refer specifically to this period. Both papers were accused by critics of sensationalizing the news in order to drive up circulation, although the newspapers did serious reporting as well. The New York Press coined the term yellow kid journalism in early 1897 after a then-popular comic strip to describe the down-market papers of Pulitzer and Hearst, which both published versions of it during a circulation war. The New York Press was a New York City Newspaper that began publication in December 1887 and continued publication until July 2, The Yellow Kid emerged as the lead character in Hogan's Alley drawn by Richard F ^[1] This was soon shortened to yellow journalism with the New York Press insisting, "We called them Yellow because they are Yellow. "^[2]

Origins: Pulitzer v. Hearst

Joseph Pulitzer purchased the World in 1883 after making the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the dominant daily in that city. Joseph Pulitzer ( English pronunciation PULL-itser; April 10, 1847 He sought a military career but was turned down by the The St Louis Post-Dispatch is the only major city-wide Newspaper in St The publisher had gotten his start editing a German-language publication in St. Louis, and saw a great untapped market in the nation's immigrant classes. Pulitzer strove to make The World an entertaining read, and filled his paper with pictures, games and contests that drew in readers, particularly those who used English as a second language. The New York World was a Newspaper published in New York from 1860 until 1931 Crime stories filled many of the pages, with headlines like "Was He A Suicide?" and "Screaming for Mercy. "^[3] In addition, Pulitzer only charged readers two cents per issue but gave readers eight and sometimes 12 pages of information (the only other two-cent paper in the city never exceeded four pages). ^[4]

While there were many sensational stories in the World, they were by no means the only pieces, or even the dominant ones. Journalism is the profession of writing or communicating formally employed by publications and broadcasters for the benefit of a particular Community of people Professional journalism is a form of news reporting which developed in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century along with formal schools of journalism News is any new information or information on Current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or Word of mouth Reportage sometimes refers to the total body of media coverage of a particular topic or event including news reporting and analysis " the extensive reportage of recent News style (also journalistic style or news writing) is the particular Prose style used for News reporting (ie Journalism ethics and standards comprise principles of Ethics and of good practice as applicable to the specific challenges faced by professional Journalists Historically Objectivity is a significant principle of Journalistic professionalism. News values, sometimes called "news criteria" determine how much prominence a news story is given by a media outlet and the attention it is given by the audience In Journalism, a source is a person publication or other record or document that gives information Editorial independence is the freedom of editors to make decisions without interference from the owners of a publication A journalism school is a School or department usually part of an established University, where Journalists are trained List of Journalism topics This page aims to list all topics related to the field of Journalism. Arts journalism is a branch of Journalism concerned with the reporting and discussion of the arts Business journalism is the branch of journalism that tracks records analyses and interprets the economic changes that take place in a society Entertainment journalism is an umbrella term used to describe all forms of Journalism that focus on the Entertainment business and its products Environmental journalism is the collection verification production distribution and exhibition of information regarding current events trends issues and people that are associated Fashion journalism is an umbrella term used to describe all aspects of published Fashion media Political journalism is a broad branch of Journalism that includes coverage of all aspects of Politics and Political science, although the term usually Science journalism is a relatively new branch of Journalism, which uses the art of Reporting to convey information about Science topics to a public forum Sports journalism is a form of Journalism that reports on Sports topics and events While the sports department within some Newspapers has been Tech journalism is a relatively new branch of Journalism, which uses the art of Reporting to convey information about Tech topics to a public forum Trade journalism reports on the movements and developments of the Business world by way of articles or analysis A traffic report is an element of a Radio program or TV news broadcast that informs listeners about general traffic conditions Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a future time and a given location Advocacy journalism is a Genre of Journalism that intentionally and transparently adopts a non-objective viewpoint usually for some social Citizen journalism, also known as public or participatory journalism or democratic journalism, is the act of citizens "playing an active role in the The civic journalism movement (also known as public journalism is according to professor David K Community journalism is locally oriented coverage that typically focuses on city neighborhoods or individual suburbs rather than metropolitan state national or world news "Gonzo" redirects here For other uses see Gonzo (disambiguation Gonzo journalism is a style of Journalism which is written Investigative journalism is a type of reporting in which reporters deeply investigate a topic of interest often involving crime Political corruption, or some other Scandal Docufiction (often understood as Docudrama) is a Neologism which refers to a cinematographic work in a Genre mixing Fiction and Narrative journalism is the interpretation of a story and the way in which the journalist portrays it be it fictional or non-fictional New Journalism was a style of 1960s and 1970s News writing and Journalism which used literary techniques deemed unconventional at the time Opinion journalism is Journalism that makes no claim of objectivity. Visual journalism is the practice of strategically combining words and images to convey information Watchdog journalism refers to forms of Activist journalism aimed at holding accountable public personalities and institutions whose functions impact social and political life The term Fourth Estate refers to the press, both in its explicit capacity of advocacy and in its implicit ability to frame political issues Fifth Estate is any class or group in society other than the Clergy ( First Estate) the Nobility ( Second Estate) the Commoners ( Freedom Constitutional or statutory protections pertaining to freedom of the press Infotainment (a Portmanteau of information and entertainment refers to a general type of media broadcast program which provides a combination of current Media bias in the United States News propaganda is Covert Propaganda packaged as credible News without transparency as to source and motivation Public relations (PR is the practice of managing the flow of Information between an Organization and its Publics Public relations - often referred The news media refers to the section of the Mass media that focuses on presenting current News to the public A newspaper is a written Publication containing News, information and Advertising, usually printed on low-cost paper called Newsprint. Magazines, periodicals or serials are Publications generally published on a regular schedule containing a variety of articles, generally News agency (alternative A news agency is an organization of Journalists established to supply News reports to organizations in the News trade Broadcast journalism is the field of news and journals which are "broadcast" that is published by electrical methods instead of the older methods such as printed newspapers Online journalism is defined as the Reporting of facts produced and distributed via the Internet. Photojournalism is a particular form of Journalism (the collecting editing and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast that creates images in order to tell Alternative media are media (newspapers radio television movies Internet etc Video blogging, sometimes shortened to vlogging is a form of Blogging for which the medium is Video. A journalist (also called a newspaperman) is a person who practices Journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events trends A reporter is a type of Journalist who Researches and presents information in certain types of Mass media. Editing Language, Images or Sound through correction condensation organization and other modifications in various media A columnist is a Journalist who writes material on a regular basis for publication in a series A photographer is a person who takes a Photograph using a Camera. Meteorology (from Greek grc μετέωρος metéōros, "high in the sky" and grc -λογία -logia) is the Interdisciplinary Pulitzer believed that newspapers were public institutions with a duty to improve society, and he put the World in the service of social reform. During a heat wave in 1883, World reporters went into the Manhattan's tenements, writing stories about the appalling living conditions of immigrants and the toll the heat took on the children. Stories headlined "How Babies Are Baked", "Burning Babies Fall From The Roof" and "Lines of Little Hearses" spurred reform and drove up the World's circulation. ^[5]

Just two years after Pulitzer took it over, the World became the highest circulation newspaper in New York, aided in part by its strong ties to the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is one of two major Political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party. ^[6] Older publishers, envious of Pulitzer's success, began criticizing the World, harping on its crime stories and stunts while ignoring its more serious reporting — trends which influenced the popular perception of yellow journalism, both then and now. Charles Dana, editor of the New York Sun, attacked The World and said Pulitzer was "deficient in judgment and in staying power. Charles Dana may refer to Charles Anderson Dana (1819–1897 U The New York Sun was a contemporary five-day Daily newspaper published in New York City from 2002 until 2008 "^[7]

Pulitzer's approach made an impression on William Randolph Hearst, a mining heir who acquired the San Francisco Examiner from his father in 1887. For other people named William Randolph Hearst see William Randolph Hearst (disambiguation William Randolph Hearst I (April 29 1863 &ndash The San Francisco Examiner is a US daily Newspaper. It has been published continuously in San Francisco, California, since Hearst read the World while studying at Harvard University and resolved to make the Examiner as bright as Pulitzer's paper. This article is about the publication entitled Examiner. There are also publications entitled The Examiner. . ^[8] Under his leadership, the Examiner devoted 24 percent of its space to crime, presenting the stories as morality plays, and sprinkled adultery and "nudity" (by 19th century standards) on the front page. Morality Play is a detective story by Barry Unsworth, a Man Booker Prize -winning author for his book Sacred Hunger Published in 1996 by ^[9] A month after taking over the paper, the Examiner ran this headline about a hotel fire:

HUNGRY, FRANTIC FLAMES. They Leap Madly Upon the Splendid Pleasure Palace by the Bay of Monterey, Encircling Del Monte in Their Ravenous Embrace From Pinnacle to Foundation. Leaping Higher, Higher, Higher, With Desperate Desire. Running Madly Riotous Through Cornice, Archway and Facade. Rushing in Upon the Trembling Guests with Savage Fury. Appalled and Panic-Striken the Breathless Fugitives Gaze Upon the Scene of Terror. The Magnificent Hotel and Its Rich Adornments Now a Smoldering heap of Ashes. The "Examiner" Sends a Special Train to Monterey to Gather Full Details of the Terrible Disaster. Arrival of the Unfortunate Victims on the Morning's Train — A History of Hotel del Monte — The Plans for Rebuilding the Celebrated Hostelry — Pariculars and Supposed Origin of the Fire. ^[10]

Hearst could go overboard in his crime coverage; one of his early pieces, regarding a "band of murderers," attacked the police for forcing Examiner reporters to do their work for them. But while indulging in these stunts, the Examiner also increased its space for international news, and sent reporters out to uncover municipal corruption and inefficiency. In one celebrated story, 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 the morning the piece appeared. ^[11]

New York

With the Examiner's success established by the early 1890s, Hearst began shopping for a New York newspaper. Hearst purchased the New York Journal in 1895, a penny paper which Pulitzer's brother Albert had sold to a Cincinnati publisher the year before. The New York Journal American was a Newspaper published from 1937 to 1966

Metropolitan newspapers started going after department store advertising in the 1890s, and discovered the larger the circulation base, the better. The history of American newspapers goes back to the 17th century with the publication of the first colonial newspapers This drove Hearst; following Pulitzer's earlier strategy, he kept the Journal's price at one cent (compared to The World's two cent price) while providing as much information as rival newspapers. ^[12] 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 (who was subsidized by his family's fortune) into bankruptcy. In a counterattack, Hearst raided the staff of the World in 1896. While most sources say that Hearst simply offered more money, Pulitzer — who had grown increasingly abusive to his employees — had become an extremely difficult man to work for, and many World employees were willing to jump for the sake of getting away from him. ^[13]

Although the competition between the World and the Journal was fierce, the papers were temperamentally alike. Both were Democratic, both were sympathetic to labor and immigrants (a sharp contrast to publishers like the New York Tribune's Whitelaw Reid, who blamed their poverty on moral defects^[14]), and both invested enormous resources in their Sunday publications, which functioned like weekly magazines, going beyond the normal scope of daily journalism. The New York Tribune was an American newspaper first established by Horace Greeley in 1841 which was long considered one of the leading Newspapers in the Whitelaw Reid ( October 27, 1837 &ndash December 15, 1912) was a U ^[15]

Their Sunday entertainment features included the first color comic strip pages, and some theorize that the term yellow journalism originated there, while as noted above the New York Press left the term it invented undefined. A comic strip is a sequence of drawings that tells a story Currently in the Western world, most comic strips are written and drawn by a Comics artist New York Press is a free Alternative weekly in New York City. Hogan's Alley, a comic strip revolving around a bald child in a yellow nightshirt (nicknamed the Yellow Kid), became exceptionally popular when cartoonist Richard Outcault began drawing it in the World in early 1896. The Yellow Kid emerged as the lead character in Hogan's Alley drawn by Richard F Richard Felton Outcault ( January 14, 1863 - September 25, 1928) was an American comic strip scriptwriter sketcher and painter When Hearst predictably hired Outcault away, Pulitzer asked artist George Luks to continue the strip with his characters, giving the city two Yellow Kids. ^[16] The use of "yellow journalism" as a synonym for over-the-top sensationalism in the U. S. apparently started with more serious newspapers commenting on the excesses of "the Yellow Kid papers. "

Spanish-American War

Male Spanish officials strip search an American woman tourist in Cuba looking for messages from rebels; front page "yellow journalism" from Hearst (artist: Remington)

Pulitzer and Hearst are often credited (or blamed) for drawing the nation into the Spanish-American War with sensationalist stories or outright lying. However, the vast majority of Americans did not live in New York City, and the decision makers who did live there probably relied more on staid newspapers like the Times, The Sun or the Post. The most famous example of the exaggeration is the apocryphal story that artist Frederic Remington telegrammed Hearst to tell him all was quiet in Cuba and "There will be no war. Frederic Sackrider Remington ( October 4, 1861 - December 26, 1909) was an American painter, Illustrator, " Hearst responded "Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war. " The story (a version of which appears in the Hearst-inspired Orson Welles film Citizen Kane) first appeared in the memoirs of reporter James Creelman in 1901, and there is no other source for it. George Orson Welles (May 6 1915 – October 10 1985 was an Academy Award -winning director, writer actor and producer for film stage radio and television Citizen Kane ( 1941) is an American Dramatic film, and the first Feature film directed by Orson Welles, who also co-authored James Creelman ( November 12, 1859 &ndash February 12, 1915) was a reporter during the height of Yellow journalism.

But Hearst became a war hawk after a rebellion broke out in Cuba in 1895. War Hawk is a term originally used to describe a member of the House of Representatives of the Twelfth Congress of the United States who advocated Stories of Cuban virtue and Spanish brutality soon dominated his front page. While the accounts were of dubious accuracy, the newspaper readers of the 19th century did not expect, or necessarily want, his stories to be pure nonfiction. Historian Michael Robertson has said that "Newspaper reporters and readers of the 1890s were much less concerned with distinguishing among fact-based reporting, opinion and literature. "^[17]

Pulitzer's treatment in the World emphasizes horrible explosion

Hearst's treatment was more effective and focused on the enemy who set the bomb — and offered a huge reward to readers

Pulitzer, though lacking Hearst's resources, kept the story on his front page. The yellow press covered the revolution extensively and often inaccurately, but conditions on Cuba were horrific enough. The island was in a terrible economic depression, and Spanish general Valeriano Weyler, sent to crush the rebellion, herded Cuban peasants into concentration camps and caused hundreds of thousands of deaths. Valeriano Weyler Nicolau marqués de Tenerife ( 17 September 1838 - 20 October 1930) was a Spanish soldier Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people commonly in large groups without trial Having clamored for a fight for two years, Hearst took credit for the conflict when it came: A week after the United States declared war on Spain, he ran "How do you like the Journal's war?" on his front page. ^[18] In fact, President William McKinley never read the Journal, and newspapers like the Tribune and the New York Evening Post, both staunchly Republican, demanded restraint. William McKinley Jr ( January 29, 1843 September 14, 1901) was the twenty-fifth President of the United States, and the last The New York Post is the 13th-oldest Newspaper published in the United States and generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continually Moreover, journalism historians have noted that yellow journalism was largely confined to New York City, and that newspapers in the rest of the country did not follow their lead. The City of New York The Journal and the World were not among the top ten sources of news in regional papers, and the stories simply did not make a splash outside Gotham. ^[19] War came because public opinion was sickened by the bloodshed, and because conservative leaders like McKinley realized that Spain had lost control of Cuba. These factors weighed more on the president's mind than the melodramas in the New York Journal. ^[20]

Hearst sailed directly to Cuba, when the invasion began, as a war correspondent, providing sober and accurate accounts of the fighting. ^[21] Creelman later praised the work of the reporters for exposing the horrors of Spanish misrule, arguing, " no true history of the war . . . can be written without an acknowledgment that whatever of justice and freedom and progress was accomplished by the Spanish-American war was due to the enterprise and tenacity of yellow journalists, many of whom lie in unremembered graves. "^[22]

After the war

Hearst placed his newspapers at the service of the Democrats during the 1900 presidential election. He later campaigned for his party's presidential nomination, but lost much of his personal prestige when columnist Ambrose Bierce and editor Arthur Brisbane published separate columns months apart that called for the assassination of McKinley. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24 1842 &ndash 1914? was an American Editorialist Journalist, short-story writer and Satirist. Arthur Brisbane (1864-1936 was an American newspaper editor born in Buffalo N When McKinley was shot on September 6, 1901, the Republican press went livid, accusing Hearst of driving Leon Czolgosz to the deed. Events 3114 BC - According to the Proleptic Julian calendar the current era in the Maya Long Count Calendar started Year 1901 ( MCMI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Leon Frank Czolgosz (Zol-gash (May 1873 Czolgosz was born in Alpena Michigan She later wrote a piece in defense of Czolgosz Hearst did not know of Bierce's column and claimed to have pulled Brisbane's after it ran in a first edition, but the incident would haunt him for the rest of his life and all but destroyed his presidential ambitions. ^[23]

Pulitzer, haunted by his "yellow sins,"^[24] returned the World to its crusading roots as the new century dawned. By the time of his death in 1911, the World was a widely-respected publication, and would remain a leading progressive paper until its demise in 1931.

Currently

The gentler pejorative "infotainment" was coined more recently to refer to generally inoffensive news programming that shuns serious issues, but blends "soft" journalism and entertainment rather than emphasizing more important news values. Infotainment (a Portmanteau of information and entertainment refers to a general type of media broadcast program which provides a combination of current A news program, news programme, news show, or newscast is a regularly scheduled radio or Television program that reports Current News values, sometimes called "news criteria" determine how much prominence a news story is given by a media outlet and the attention it is given by the audience When infotainment involves celebrity sex scandals, dramatic (or dramatized) "true crime" stories and similar trivia, it borders on the tricks of old-fashioned yellow journalism.

Corporate media is another recent pejorative, when applied to news conglomerates whose business interests critics see as counter to the public interest. " Corporate media " is a term which refers to a system of media production distribution ownership and funding which is dominated by Corporations and is governed by For example, such media may avoid incisive reporting on influential corporations or limit public information about proposed government regulation of media industries. Collusion between political, business and media worlds sometimes brings allegations of illegal or unethical practices ranging from fraud to antitrust violations. In the broadest sense a fraud is a Deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual

While bland infotainment and unethical corporate media practices may be considered "yellow" in the sense of "cowardly," the term yellow journalism traditionally refers to news organizations that employ some combination of sensationalism and profiteering. Sensationalism is a manner of being extremely Controversial, loud or attention grabbing

"Pseudo-news" organizations draw general audiences, who tend to fall into market demographics that each favor particular blends of issues-based entertainment along with their "news. A demographic or demographic profile is a term used in Marketing and Broadcasting, to describe a demographic grouping or a Market "

See also

• Parachute journalism
• Supermarket tabloid
• Culture of Fear
• Moral Panic
• James Creelman
• 24-hour news cycle
• Junk food news

References

Footnotes

Notations

• George W. Auxier, "Middle Western Newspapers and the Spanish American War, 1895–1898," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 26 (March 1940):
• Procter, Ben. William Randolph Hearst: The Early Years, 1863–1910 (1998)
• Emory, Edwin and Michael. The Press and America. 4th ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ; Prentice Hall, 1984
• Joyce Milton, The Yellow Kids: Foreign correspondents in the heyday of yellow journalism. " New York: Harper & Row, 1989).
• Nasaw, David, The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst. Boston; Houghton Mifflin, 2000
• Morton M. Rosenberg and Thomas P. Ruff, Indiana and the Coming of the Spanish-American War, Ball State Monograph, No. 26, Publications in History, No. 4 (Muncie: Ball State University, 1976) who say Indiana papers were "more moderate, more cautious, less imperialistic and less jingoistic than their eastern counterparts. "
• Ted Curtis Smythe, The Gilded Age Press, 1865–1900 (2003)
• Harold J. Sylvester, “The Kansas Press and the Coming of the Spanish-American War, ” The Historian, 31 (February 1969) finds no Yellow journalism influence on the newspapers in Kansas.
• Swanberg, W. A. Pulitzer. New York; Charles Scribner's Sons, 1967.
• Mark M. Welter, "The 1895–1898 Cuban Crisis in Minnesota Newspapers: Testing the 'Yellow Journalism' Theory," Journalism Quarterly, 47 (Winter 1970): 719–24.
• Mark D. Winchester, "Hully Gee, It's a WAR! The Yellow Kid and the Coining of Yellow Journalism. " Inks: Cartoon and Comic Art Studies 2. 3 (1995) 22–37.

External links

• Not likely sent: The Remington-Hearst 'telegrams'