Academic English for International Exams

W: I'm sure you all have heard of the term "yellow journalism." In case you haven't, it refers to a type of journalism that focuses on sensational topics that will get people's attention. It shouldn't be such a problem except that it's also associated with urn, unethical practices and sometimes even outright lying. There are plenty of modern examples of yellow journalism, but you might be surprised to learn that it first appeared more than a century ago.

In spite of all the criticism it garnered then, it actually played an important role in many historical events of the era. It brought attention to the hardships of city life for immigrants, and later, it drew public attention to the Spanish-American War, You're probably wondering how this was possible. Why don't we talk a little bit about how that happened?

Let me begin by saying that yellow journalism was born, in an official sense, as a marketing strategy by a young newspaperman named Joseph Pulitzer. Very simply, Pulitzer wanted to find a way to get more people to read his paper. So he tried to make his paper interesting by including games and contests. Additionally, he realized that he could increase his readership significantly by tapping into the immigrant market, which, as you can imagine, was considerable in the early 19th century. So that's what he did, and his papers sold like crazy. At this point, I want to note that, although Pulitzer wanted to find a way to make more money, he also felt that it was his duty to improve society. So, um, although he ran sensational headlines like "Lines of Little Hearses" or uh, well "How Babies are Baked" to catch people's attention, many of the articles were relevant to current events and society, especially to the immigrant community of New York City. Pulitzer's enterprise became quite lucrative and it inspired another young man named William Hearst to follow in his footsteps. Hearst used many of the same techniques as Pulitzer: his paper featured attention-grabbing headlines, and its stories usually involved crime or celebrity scandals. Furthermore, at only one cent, his newspaper cost less than Pulitzer's. As readership grew, Hearst had to search high and low to keep finding scandalous material to draw readers. Many times, Hearst was criticized for embellishing stories. And, when there was no story, Hearst was happy to stir one up. This was sort of the case with the Spanish-American War. See, prior to the outbreak of the war, Hearst supposedly told one of his reporters that he would furnish a war for him to cover. And when the war finally did break out in 1895, it was on the front page nearly every day.

Political cartoons depicted the Spanish as brutal and cruel. The articles were not always accurate ... that is, until Hearst himself traveled to Cuba to cover the events. Interestingly, although historians all pretty much agree that Hearst played a very minor role, if any, in starting the war, many say that his coverage later in the war helped promote awareness about the realities that the Cubans faced under Spanish rule.