sensationalism

(noun)

Sensationalism is a type of editorial bias in mass media in which events and topics in news stories and pieces are over-hyped to increase viewership or readership numbers.

Related Terms

  • Penny press newspapers
  • hawk

Examples of sensationalism in the following topics:

  • A Communications Revolution

    • The cheap sensationalized news sources covered crime, tragedy, adventure, and gossip, and these newspapers easily shifted allegiance on political issues.
  • The Antecedents of Progressivism

    • Publishers of yellow journals, such as Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, were more intent on increasing circulation through scandal, crime, entertainment, and sensationalism.
    • In response to the exaggerated facts of yellow journalism, objective journalism, as exemplified by The New York Times under Adolph Ochs after 1896, turned away from sensationalism and reported facts with the intention of being impartial and a newspaper of record.
  • The Cuban War of Independence

    • The Cuban struggle for independence had captured the American imagination for years, and newspapers had been agitating for intervention with horrific stories of Spanish atrocities against the native Cuban population, intentionally sensationalized and exaggerated .
    • Indignation, intensified by sensationalized press coverage, swept across the country.
  • Urban Recreation

    • Benjamin Day , an important and innovative publisher of penny newspapers, introduced a new type of sensationalism, a reliance on human-interest stories.
  • War, Empire, and an Emerging American World Power

    • The Cubans had been in a state of rebellion since the 1870s, and American newspapers, particularly New York City papers of Pulitzer and Hearst, printed sensationalized "Yellow Journalism" stories about Spanish atrocities in Cuba.
  • The Muckrakers

    • Publishers of yellow journals, such as Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, focused on increasing circulation through scandal, crime, entertainment and sensationalism.
  • Popular Culture

    • The news in these papers was often sensationalized to encourage sales and also carried serialized fiction.
  • The Boston Massacre and Military Occupation

    • A sensationalized portrayal of the skirmish, later to become known as the "Boston Massacre," between British soldiers and citizens of Boston on March 5, 1770.
  • Social Criticism

    • In response to the exaggerated facts and sensationalism of yellow journalism, objective journalism, as exemplified by The New York Times under Adolph Ochs after 1896, reported facts with the intention of being impartial and a newspaper of record.
  • Newspapers

    • Benjamin Day, an important and innovative publisher of penny newspapers, introduced a new type of sensationalism: a reliance on human-interest stories.
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