What is Yellow Journalism: History, Characteristics, Positives & Negatives, Best Examples
Journalism is a vast subject, and it has different types. One such type is Yellow Journalism. It is a style of news reporting that uses sensationalism and eye-catching headlines to attract readers and viewers. Yellow Journalism includes techniques like exaggeration, scandal-mongering, and sensationalism. Learn all about yellow journalism on this page.
What is Yellow Journalism
In simple terms, Yellow Journalism is a style of journalism that prioritises sensationalism over facts. Now, what is sensationalization, and how does it happen? It is different from routine journalism, which we will cover in this article.
Have you ever heard of the term sensationalization in news reporting? Sensationalization means reporting news and stories to excite readers and viewers. In sensationalization, the focus is more on catchy headlines, loud music, background scores, sharp visuals, and the top graphic representation. This makes even the simple news catchy and view-worthy. In sensationalization, facts and data are often ignored. In other words, it can also be said to present information and news to make it shocking or exciting.
As per Wikipedia, Yellow Journalism was first coined in the 1890s by Erwin Wardman as a tactic by two New York City newspapers, the World and the Journal, to compete with each other. In the Yellow journalism, the techniques used while reporting the news are:
- Exaggerating News Events
- Scandal-mongering
- Sensationalism
- Using Eye-catching Headlines
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- Characteristics of Yellow Journalism
- Who started Yellow Journalism?
- Yellow Journalism: Positives and Negatives
- Examples of Yellow Journalism
- What is Yellow Journalism in the Present Scenario?
- Impact of Yellow Journalism
- Future of Yellow Journalism
Characteristics of Yellow Journalism
In yellow journalism, the reporters or the news presenters include scare headlines that are written in huge print. This is often done to sensationalise minor news. Journalists who follow the yellow journalism pattern utilise lavish use of pictures or imaginary drawings to present the news. As a tactic, they often use fake interviews, misleading headlines, pseudoscience, and a parade of false learning from so-called experts on various matters like defence, politics, entertainment, etc. Journalists emphasise full-colour Sunday supplements, which consist of page 3 news, feature articles, paparazzi content, superficial articles, or comics.
Who started Yellow Journalism?
In the late 1800s in New York, two publishers, William Randolph Hearst of the New York Journal and Joseph Pulitzer of the New York World, used unconventional ways of presenting stories to attract readers. The other established journalists came up with the term 'yellow journalism' to criticize William and Joseph's work. The journalists' outrage resulted in the removal of Hearst and Pulitzer's newspapers from some of the libraries and the newsstands.
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No, there is no sectional time limit in the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) entrance exam. As per the official source, the IIMC exam will be of two hours duration, and candidates will have to answer 100 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) on General Knowledge and General Aptitude, including a few general questions from the field of Media & Communication.
For the candidates appearing for CUET PG, the exam pattern is such that the number of questions will be 100 and they will be divided into two parts: Part A: Consisting of Language Comprehension/Verbal Ability, General Awareness, Mathematical/Quantitative Ability and Analytical Skills comprising of 25 MCQs and Part B: Domain Knowledge comprising of 75 MCQs. For those appearing for Regional Language PG Diploma Journalism courses, the question paper will be descriptive and objective in nature. There will be Long, Short and Multiple-Choice question (MCQ) type questions.
Yellow Journalism: Positives and Negatives
Now that we have learned about Yellow Journalism and understand its characteristics and tactics, let's delve into its positives and negatives and understand how yellow journalism fares in society.
Positives of Yellow Journalism
These are some of the positives of yellow journalism:
- Creativity: One should give it to yellow journalism to raise the bar for creativity. The headlines, the punch lines, and the language have all sorts of creativity, they are copywriting-esque standards, and incorporate trends very well to attract major viewerships.
- Over-the-top Eye-Catching Headlines: The headlines in yellow journalism ooze creativity to their core. They are trendy, they are short, crisp, and say a hundred sentences in a few words.
- Read-worthy News: The news content in yellow journalism is read-worthy as it is short, crisp, and to the point and might also include a visual representation, unlike the regular article pieces, which are descriptive, detailed, and lengthy.
- Visually Appealing: In yellow journalism, the focus is more on how to make news visually appealing by using images, infographics, videos, or colourful highlights
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Negatives of Yellow Journalism
Find some of the negatives of yellow journalism here:
- Propaganda Technique: Due to its sensationalization, yellow journalism can often be used as a propaganda technique by political parties or corporations to create a wave in favour of them and woo the readers.
- Sharing Clickbait News: Yellow journalism is often discredited for sharing clickbait content where the outside showcases a piece of important news, but the inside has a completely different story or mediocre content. This technique is mainly followed by media houses that share content through YouTube. It is done to bring in more views, although this technique is successful at the start, slowly, with awareness, users stop falling bait to such a techniqu
- Promoting Fake News: Through yellow journalism, there are chances of spreading fake news and information. This promotion of fake news can lead to misinformation among the viewers and create a law and order situation.
Examples of Yellow Journalism
The best example of yellow journalism is the afternoon news shows, which focus on daily soaps. During these TV shows, the production team uses flashy edits and catchy headlines to present "day-to-day activities" from popular TV shows with high ratings. These news shows are developed by including scary headlines, melodrama, hyperbole, and exaggerated or unsubstantiated reports.
Another example can be said of TV shows that are created on the backdrop of any controversial statement given by a politician or a celebrity.
What is Yellow Journalism in the Present Scenario?
In the present scenario, the tactic of yellow journalism is used on a major scale by various news websites and channels to sensationalise even the smallest event of national or international importance. This can be seen in politics, the entertainment sector, as well as sports. This large-scale adoption of yellow journalism can be attributed to the high competition among the publications, to create news that has to be altered in such a way that it fits the needs and demands of the current situation. In the past, editors used to feel that changing the story idea in a certain manner would help gain some traction in society and catch the attention of the readers. According to them, this helped the publication sell more and more newspapers, websites got users, videos got viewership, and TV shows got TRP.
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Impact of Yellow Journalism
Today, in the era of high-scale content consumption, yellow journalism has created a major impact. In today’s world, with the rapid scale advancement in technology, even technology has not been able to change the principles of Yellow Journalism. A very common example of this is the kind of promotions that are done on television that promise the audience a particular update on a story, which may not be the case in the actual sense. By doing this, users get hooked to their screens, which helps them achieve viewership, but morally, it is not correct, and they often face criticism. This rapid use has also given strength to the spread of fake news, misinformation, and the creation of fast news to get ahead of the competition; however, all this is just to gain quick traction, but in the long run, it is just NOTHING.
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Future of Yellow Journalism
The future of yellow journalism is promising, only if it is done ethically. Everybody loves creativity; however, with a pinch of salt, not the whole salt bottle. Yellow Journalism, if done in a pinch-like portion, can spice up things, gain readers, and increase viewership, but if the whole news is built on yellow journalism, it will not gain long-term momentum, and the audience will slowly lose momentum.
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The XET pattern is explained in the table below.
Particulars
Details
Mode
Online Test
Medium
English
No. of Sections
2 (Objective and Subjective)
Time Duration
1 hour (30 minutes per section)
Total Marks
100 (50 per section)