Word of the week: YELLOW JOURNALISM
Related expressions
1. yellow journalism – refers to sensationalism and “scare” headlines.
Yellow journalism is a form of sensational writing that distorts reality and misinforms readers.
2. circulation – the number of people to whom a newspaper or magazine is regularly sold.
The daily paper has a circulation of 2 million copies nationwide.
3. credible – able to be believed or trusted.
The article was based on credible and historical facts.
In context
In the world of the press we can distinguish between two types of newspapers: tabloids and broadsheets. The latter are papers that publish in-depth articles concerning such issues as the economy, politics and finance; in other words hard news. Tabloids on the other hand present so called yellow journalism, which most often relies on distorted and unverified stories. The term was coined in the mid-1890s when two rival newspapers, The New York Journal and the New York World, began competing with each other in order to gain higher readership. To increase their circulation the papers were edited to sensationalize the stories. They became media outlets of scoops and scandalous stories with screaming flashy headlines.
Tabloidization and sensationalism still remain common today. The tabloids or gutter press have become a form of entertainment rather than a credible source of information. Large scale photos supplement short and easy-to-read texts that require little thought. Yet, despite their demeaning nature, tabloids have maintained their place in newspaper stands next to broadsheets. Recently, however, the circulation of gutter press has decreased compared to the tabloid heydays of the 1970s and 1980s when the British National Enquirer, for example, had a circulation of 5 million copies.
The popularity of yellow journalism has affected many publications by forcing them to hype stories in order not to lose readership to their competition. It has also led to the creation of new genres of TV programming that have taken on similar editing tactics, for example reality TV.
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