INTRODUCTION TO SENSATIONALISM

WHAT IS SENSATIONALISM?

In journalism and mass media, sensationalism is a type

of editorial tactic. Events and topics in news stories are
selected and worded to excite the greatest number of
readers and viewers. This style of news reporting
encourages biased or emotionally loaded impressions of
events rather than neutrality, and may cause a
manipulation to the truth of a story.
Sensationalism may rely on reports about generally
insignificant matters and portray them as a major
influence on society, or biased presentations of
newsworthy topics, in a trivial, or tabloid manner,
contrary to general assumptions of professional
journalistic standards.

Some tactics include being deliberately obtuse ,

appealing to emotions, being controversial,
intentionally omitting facts and information, being loud
and self-centered, and acting to obtain attention. Trivial
information and events are sometimes misrepresented
and exaggerated as important or significant, and often
include stories about the actions of individuals and
small groups of people, the content of which is often
insignificant and irrelevant to the macro-level day-to-
day events occurring globally.
Sensationalism is a tactic used in an attempt to gain an
audience’s attention. Media outlets resort to the use of
shocking words, exaggeration and sometimes blatant
lies.

Alison Dagnes, a professor of political science at

Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania, described
some of the ways sensationalism is used.

"Amplifying language, trying to use very big words that

are exacerbating," Dagnes said. "Something that
invokes ... a whole lot of emotion."

This has been a topic of controversial debate for some

time now and raises questions of whether the drive for
sensationalism conflicts with a journalist’s duty for fair
and honest reporting.
Sensationalism is also referred as “ Yellow Journalism.”

Yellow journalism and yellow press are American

terms for journalism and associated newspapers that
present little or no legitimate, well-researched news
while instead using eye-catching headlines for increased
sales. Techniques may include exaggerations of news
events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism. By
extension, the term yellow journalism is used today as a
pejorative to decry any journalism that treats news in an
unprofessional or unethical fashion.
HISTORY OF SENSATIONALISM IN MEDIA

How sensationalism has evolved as a concept in the

media :

While the general public often criticizes modern

mainstream media for promoting sensational content,
journalism and sensationalism have been linked for
many years. Yellow journalism, the practice of trying to
promote biased opinion as objective fact, often involved
sensationalism. Newspapers would run minor news
stories with huge, overly dramatic headlines and the
lavish use of attention-getting pictures or drawings.
Stories would often be misleading and feature pseudo-
science or quotes from faked interviews. In the
1890s, The New York World run by Joseph Pulitzer
and The New York Journal run by William Randolph
Hearst were known for yellow journalism, yet routinely
outsold competitors who published purely objective
content.