THE YELLOW PRESS AND THE TIMES
1865-1900
Objectives
qDefine the new journalism and sensationalism.
qUnderstand why the new journalism developed when it did.
qExplain the contributions of Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst.
qAssess whether Pulitzer and Hearst were positive or negative influences on American journalism.
Today’s Agenda
q Development of Two Journalism
q Story-Telling Journalism
q Information Journalism
q Story Journalism of Pulitzer
q Story Journalism of William Randolph Hearst
q Information Journalism of Adolph Ochs
The Gilded Age: 1865-1900
q Nation’s population doubles
q Unprecedented economic expansion
q Labor organizes nationally
q Politics reflects industrial trends
q Advances in education
q Newspapers become product of the metropolis
q Baseball, plays, and vaudeville become the rage
The Gilded Age: 1865-1900
q More women read newspapers
q Evening editions outdistance morning issues
q Sunday editions become popular
q Novelists exam problems of the Gilded Age
q Scientific progress is notable
q Newspaper personnel expands
Story-Telling Model of Journalism
q Telling stories= aesthetic function of newspapers
q Enjoyability function
q Consummatory function
q Relates lives to class in which people belong
q Actual and proper function: Mead
q Reporter sent to get story, not to get facts
q Newspaper is a guide to living by framing facts
Information Model of Journalism
q Facts unframed; purveys pure information
q Prompt verifiability
q Incompatible with story telling
qAssociated with fairness, objectivity, scrupulous dispassion
qConsidered more reliable than story papers
Public Defender #1
The Gilded Age:
1865-1900
q Tweed Ring and political corruption
Joseph Pulitzer
q Definition of news
q Rationalization of advertising policies
q Advertising develops as an independent institution
Joseph Pulitzer and News
q Developed a new type of sensationalism
JP’s News Formula
Exploit crime, scandal or shocking circumstances
+
spirit of a crusade
=
Pulitzer’s New Journalism
Joseph Pulitzer and News
q Stunts
Joseph Pulitzer and News
qRevitalized the editorial page
q Popularized Sunday editions
q Developed special women’s pages
q Developed entertainment
Joseph Pulitzer and Advertising
q Rationalized advertising policies
q Circulation became public
Joseph Pulitzer and Advertising
q Advertising develops as an independent institution
q Newspapers become brokers of their columns
q Agents bought newspaper space and sold it
Yellow Journalism
qSelf advertisement
üIllustrations
üLarger and darker headlines
üPromotion of exclusive features
ü Sympathy with underdog
Richard Outcault
William Randolph Hearst: Positives
qMade newspapers interesting
qDeveloped the human interest story
qDeveloped headline techniques
William Randolph Hearst: Positives
q Printed full-page Sunday features
q Hired the best writers
q Popularized science
William Randolph Hearst: Positives
qCrusaded against corruption in government
q Exposed trusts and set people to thinking about the economic system
q Became a voice for lower economic class
William Randolph Hearst: Negatives
q Reporters exaggerated stories
q Twisted facts to gain effect
q Aroused war spirit and goaded the U.S. into the Spanish-American War
William Randolph Hearst: Negatives
q Emphasized crime and sex news
q Developed newspaper as an escape entertainment
q Developed comics
Adolph Ochs
q News
q Circulation
q Morality
News
q Vendor of information
q Decent, dignified and independent newspaper
q Devoid of sensational or pornographic or gaudily spiced reports of crime, sex or bloodshed.
Circulation
q First to solicit circulation by telephone
Moral War
q “It does not soil the breakfast cloth.”
q “All the News that’s fit to print.”
Conclusion
q The Yellow Press demonstrated that:
qSex, sin and violence sells.
q Large circulations guaranteed publishers a powerful voice as “champions of the
powerless.”
q Journalists could report the activities of politicians objectively.
q Newspapers could be cultural icons and at the forefront of the American consciousness.