"Buy This Newspaper or Else You Will Get an F on Your Grade!!!"
When a paper or magazine is accused of yellow journalism, it means they have ignored real news-worthy topics in favor of sensationalized headlines and stories that are strictly designed to sell the magazine or paper. For instance, rather than focusing on the budget deficit, a newspaper runs a front cover story on a celebrity that has been spotted in a rehabilitation facility. Or, rather than focusing on disasters in other countries, a news television show spends its time covering the shocking affairs and allegations against a popular sports star. Yellow journalism is truly considered to be more negative than positive according to today's journalist standards.
Five Criteria to Define Yellow Journalism
Often times, the sensationalism is combined with accusations that are not fact-based, sources that may or may not be credible, and major self-promotion. American historian and journalist, Frank Luther Mott, uses five criteria for defining yellow journalism:- Massive headlines designed to scare individuals into purchasing the newspaper or magazine – when often the news is in fact, minor.
- Overuse of images or drawings.
- The utilization of false interviews, headlines designed to mislead readers, pseudo science or input from several ‘experts’ which may or may not be valid.
- Emphasis on full-color Sunday supplements, including comic strips.
- Sympathetic angle depicting an ‘underdog’ fighting against the system.
Critical Thinking
View the following links. While they are websites, not newspapers, look at both, find and write down examples of each of the criteria defined above (you do not have to do number 4) on each site. Describe why each example meets the criteria.
http://www.foxnews.com/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
