In the intro to this Historical Hack, we discussed yellow journalism, which is the use of sensationalized reporting in order to achieve a goal. Sometimes, the goal is to simply sell more papers, but sometimes the goal is to influence public opinion. In this section, we will look at a few examples of sensationalist reporting and try to identify their goals. We will also look at how different papers use sensationalism differently in order to target specific audiences.

Frank Luther Mott, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of American journalism, defined yellow journalism by these characteristics:^[1]

• Scary headlines in huge print, often of minor news
• Overuse of pictures, or imaginary drawings
• Sources are faked interviews, misleading headlines, pseudoscience, or false learning from so-called experts
• Emphasis on full-color Sunday supplements, usually with comic strips
• Dramatic sympathy with the “underdog” against the system

The Goals of Sensationalist Reporting

1. Sell more papers: As discussed previously, yellow journalism was born mostly from a desire to sell more papers by making reporting more politically non-partisan and selling advertisements. In order to replace loyal party subscribers, newspaper publishers had to figure out a way to get the general public to buy their paper in large numbers. Yellow journalism was the use of sensationalism, hyperbole, and other types of exaggeration to appeal to the emotions of readers and get them to become subscribers or regular customers.
   1. Appeal to fear: Newspapers could appeal to public fear by publishing extremely detailed crime statistics and reports, including emotional narratives and interviews with crime victims. Readers would feel like they needed to stay informed about crime trends in their neighborhoods and so would purchase papers more often.
   2. Appeal to voyeurism: Noted film historian Gerald Mast once wrote that voyeurism “allows us to experience all the excitement of disaster, catastrophe, and pain, to witness the most horrible human events, without any danger of feeling real pain.” When newspapers would publish scandalous stories, detailed crime or disaster reports, personal interviews, and other emotional pieces, it was a little like today’s reality television. By buying and reading the papers, people could experience those feelings secondhand without actually having to go through the true experience.
   3. Appeal to outrage: Publishing scandalous stories often created mass outrage against political officials, celebrities, or other public figures. In order to stay up-to-date on these scandals and to seem well-informed, or righteously outraged, Americans would become regular newspaper readers, driving up sales.
2. Influence public opinion: While newspapers in the early 20th century attempted to bill themselves as non-partisan in terms of politics, most still had an underlying agenda or bias determined by their publisher and reporters (as we saw in the first section of this Hack). Papers would often publish pieces that contained half-truths, hyperbole, or irrelevant details in order to sway public opinion in line with whatever the stance of the reporter or publisher happened to be. Newspapers essentially switched from simply telling people exactly what to think/believe/vote, to manipulating facts in order to allow the public to feel that they came to that conclusion on their own.
   1. Create a common enemy: Using language to paint a certain group or individual in a bad light or to pit two groups against one another was a common tactic of sensationalist reporting in the early 20th century. For example, “muckraking” journalism involved sending investigative reporters to dig up dirt on public officials, even if it was not entirely relevant to their position or duties. They would then publish the information in order to create bad feelings toward that individual among their reader base, who would then remember those bad feelings during an election.
   2. Create a martyr: This tactic was the opposite of creating a common enemy. Newspapers would conduct personal interviews with people who they felt had suffered for a cause that they supported or family members of people who had died in service of that cause. This reporting would stir up emotions and feelings of loyalty in readers who identified with that individual, thereby creating feelings of loyalty toward the cause itself.
   3. Create outrage: Similar to the appeal to outrage in order to sell more papers, appealing to outrage also worked to influence public opinion. If a newspaper could create enough outrage over an issue or a public figure’s actions, that outrage could translate into voting power or activism, thereby empowering that particular movement or ideology.

Try It

In the lead-up to the Spanish-American War (1898), yellow journalism exploded with sensationalized and even flat-out fabricated stories of atrocities committed by the Spanish in Cuba. Look at the sketch below and the accompanying headline from notorious “yellow paper” the New York Journal, then answer the practice question.

Figure 1. Headline: “Refined Young Women Stripped and Searched by Brutal Spaniards While Under Our Flag on the Ollivette”