A to Z Challenge - Y for Yellow Journalism

Theme - Journalism jargons

This is a term that refers to newspapers that publish reports that are exaggerated and not fact-checked. The language used is colloquial, and the tone and tenor of the stories are such that readers can easily relate to.

The stories are sensational in nature, relating to subjects like crime, passion, personal relationships etc., and they are splashed on pages in big font sizes with colourful photos that easily catch the attention of readers.

Yellow Kid by Richard Felton
Outcault [Public domain]

The phrase is widely believed to have originated from the name of a popular comic strip, called Yellow Kid, first carried in Joseph Pulitzer's New York World. The strip was among the many devices the paper used in its circulation war with William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal between 1895 and 1898.

The term yellow journalism refers to the sensational nature of journalism these two papers practised as they tried to gather more readers.

I don't think it would be wide off the mark to say that today's 'fake news' is the digital avatar of pre-computer era's 'yellow journalism'.

(This post is a part of the "Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2019".)