The term ‘Yellow Journalism’ refers to
2014
The term ‘Yellow Journalism’ refers to
Answer: B. sensationalism and exaggeration to attract readers / viewers — ConceptYellow journalism is a term from media studies for a style of news production in which verified substance is subordinated to sensation. Its recognised…
- A.
sensational news about terrorism and violence
- B.
sensationalism and exaggeration to attract readers / viewers
- C.
sensational news about arts and culture
- D.
sensational news printed on yellow paper
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Concept
Yellow journalism is a term from media studies for a style of news production in which verified substance is subordinated to sensation. Its recognised marks are scare headlines out of proportion to the story, exaggeration and embellishment of the facts, lavish use of pictures and pseudo-science, and manufactured or thinly sourced human-interest material — all deployed to enlarge circulation, audience and attention.
A term of this kind classifies the treatment given to news, not the news itself. Three different questions can be asked about any story: what it is about (its beat), how it is treated (its style), and how it is physically produced (its material form). Yellow journalism answers the second question, which is why the label can attach to a story on any beat, in any medium, printed on paper of any colour.
Application
Tested against that distinction, the description that names a treatment rather than a subject or a material is “sensationalism and exaggeration to attract readers / viewers”. It supplies both elements of the standard definition: the technique (sensationalising and exaggerating) and the purpose (drawing an audience).
Cross-check
“sensational news about terrorism and violence” names a beat. Attacks and unrest can be reported with restraint or with lurid amplification, so naming the beat does not settle the style.
“sensational news about arts and culture” also names a beat. A theatre or film page can be written as soberly, or as luridly, as any other section of a paper.
“sensational news printed on yellow paper” names a production material. It echoes where the label came from — the yellow-inked “Yellow Kid” comic strip that ran in Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and then in William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal during their 1890s circulation war — but the origin of a name is not its meaning, and yellow ink was never part of the practice being named.
The term therefore refers to sensationalism and exaggeration used to attract readers or viewers.