History of Journalism, History of Newspapers, History of Advertising, The Yellow Kid, Pultizer v. Hearst, Nellie Bly

1. YELLOW
JOURNALISM
1880-1900
T H E Y E L L O W K I D, P U L I T Z E R , H E A R S T, A N D T H E
C I R C U L AT I O N W A R S

2. JUST DO IT: WARM-UP ACTIVITIES
• Yellow
– Please brainstorm images, objects, and meanings associated with the word yellow.
– What kinds of sayings have you heard with word yellow in it?
– Be prepared to share your answers with the class.
• Headlines
– Review paper and choose a headline to write on the board.
– What does each headline imply? Which one would you choose to read?

3. WHAT IS
CREDIBILITY?
• The quality of being
trusted and believed in.
• The quality of being
convincing or
believable.
• Synonyms:
plausibility believability
tenability,
probability feasibility lik
elihood credence auth
ority cogency

4. YELLOW JOURNALISM:
THE 1890’S
• Sensationalism reaches new heights as melodrama, romance,
and hyperbole infiltrate news in an attempt to boost
circulation and sales.
– Melodrama: a sensational dramatic piece with
exaggerated characters and exciting events intended to
appeal to the emotions.
– Hyperbole: exaggerated statements or claims not meant
to be taken literally.

5. WHERE DID THE NAME “YELLOW
JOURNALISM COME FROM?
• The New York World began publishing cartoons
during this time period.
• The first well-known cartoon was named “Hogan’s
Alley”, and it featured a character called “The
Yellow Kid”.
– Yellow coloring was used (for the first time in a major
newspaper) to accent the characters.
• The strip was so popular, Hearst (New York Journal)
attempted to replicate it, even hiring the writer of
Hogan’s Alley away from Pulitzer (New York World)!
• This leads to direct competition between the two
papers.

6. THE YELLOW KID
• Comics in America started
(unofficially) with the Yellow Kid
• Written by Richard Felton
Outcault
• Based on life in the slums of NY
• Appeared first in Truth
Magazine in 1894. It appeared
a year later in Pulitzer’s New
York World under the name
“Hogan’s Alley.”
• Pulitzer uses yellow ink to draw
attention to the comic

7. PULITZER AND HEARST: THE FATHERS
OF YELLOW JOURNALISM

8. JOSEPH
PULITZER
• Union soldier under Lincoln
• Worked for a German newspaper
in St. Louis, and eventually
worked his way to owner of the
St. Louis Dispatch
• Works tirelessly (often 16 hours a
day or more), and develops his
skills as the editor of a people’s
paper, publishing articles that
exposed government and
business corruption.
• In 1883, with his health failing, he
travelled to NY to board a ship
for Europe for treatment, but
stubbornly refused to leave.
• He met with a financier, and
arranged for the purchase of the
NY World

9. JOSEPH PULITZER AND
THE NEW YORK WORLD
Increased the paper’s circulation from 16,000 to 600,000
people in less than 10 years.
Wanted newspapers to champion human rights and speak for
those who did not have a voice.
Pulitzer also promised to use the paper to "expose all fraud
and sham, fight all public evils and abuses, and to battle for the
people with earnest sincerity".

10. PULITZER’S IMPACT:
“A ONE MAN
REVOLUTION”
• Success comes at a price;
competitors steal his journalists and
illustrators, and Pulitzer himself faces
vicious attacks in print from other
editors (“Bad Jew”)
• At age 43, his failing health
(blindness, depression) forced him
into seclusion, but he maintained
close control of the World and other
newspapers, communicating with
them via a complex code he
developed.

11. NEW JOURNALISM
TECHNIQUES
EMERGE
• Investigative Journalism Emerges
• Nellie Bly and “Muckraking”
– 10 Days in a Madhouse
– Around the World in 72 days

12. PULITZER’S LEGACY
• “A cynical, mercenary, demagogic
press will produce in time a people as
base as itself. The power to mould the
future of the Republic will be in the
hands of the journalists of future
generations.“ –Joseph Pulitzer on why
a journalism college was necessary
• Pulitzer dies aboard his yacht in 1913.
• In 1914, the Columbia School of
Journalism is founded, and in 1917, the
first Pulitzer awards are given out.

13. PULITZER’S
NEWS FORMULA
Exploit crime, scandal or
shocking circumstances
+
spirit of a crusade
=
Pulitzer’s New Journalism

14. PULITZER’S IMPACT ON
ADVERTISING
Advertising develops as an
independent institution
Newspapers become brokers of
their columns
Agents bought newspaper space
and sold it

15. 9/18/18: WARM-UP
QUESTION
• Do you think
that the media
(newspapers,
magazines,
television) is able
to influence
public opinion in
the world today?
Why or why not?

16. REVIEW: WHAT WAS YELLOW
JOURNALISM?
Yellow journalism, in short, means biased opinion camouflaged as objective fact. It involves
sensationalism, distorted stories, and misleading images for the sole purpose of boosting newspaper
sales and exciting public opinion.
This period of sensationalist news delivery where the so-called yellow press routinely outsold the more
honest newspapers does stand out as a particularly dark era in journalistic history.
The demand of the United States people for absolutely free press allowed such newspapers to steal
headlines and stories directly from other papers, or simply fabricate stories to fit their particular agenda.

17. WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST
AND THE NEW YORK JOURNAL
• Son of wealthy politicians, Harvard grad, apprenticed
under Pulitzer at the NY World
• Father gives him the San Francisco Examiner (which he
won in a poker game)
• At age of 24, Hearst models it after the World (modern
layout and heavy sensationalism) and becomes very
successful.
• Buys NY Morning Journal 8 years later (1895), begins
stealing Pulitzer’s writing staff (Outcault and others),
hiring famous writers (Mark Twain, Stephen Crane)
and publishing sensationalist accounts of the
Cuban Revolution.

18. THE
CIRCULATION
WARS
• Competition for readers leads
to irresponsible journalism.
• Both men sensationalize
events to the extreme, and the
public becomes inflamed,
demanding Congress take
action.
• In many ways, the Cuban
rebels mirrored American
patriots of the revolution, and
both men played on this
pathos.

19. THE CUBAN REVOLUTION AND
“JOURNALISM OF ACTION”
• Evangeline Cisneros-Hearst orchestrates a sensationalized
prisoner escape and drums up public support for entering the
• “Butcher Weyler” was a Cuban leader who was reported to be
putting Cubans in concentration camps.
• Frederick Remington: tells Hearst there is no war to cover, and
Hearst replies: "You furnish the pictures. I'll furnish the war."
• The Sylvia and The Maine
– Hearst outfits a yacht and takes it to Cuba to cover naval
battles
– Hearst blames the sinking of the US warship on a Spanish
mine, and this proves to be the final straw for Congress: the
US enters the war.

20. THE SPANISH-
AMERICAN WAR
• While not a part of the decision directly, the two
men are blamed by many historians for drawing
the United States into the war.
• “Fake news” appears for the first time in America,
and leaves readers wondering whether
journalists care more about selling copies than
reporting the truth.

21. I M P A C T O F
Y E L L O W
J O U R N A L I S M
P E R M A N E N T LY D A M A G E S
N E W S PA P E R ’ S C R E D I B I L I T Y
F O R R E P O R T I N G A C C U R AT E
N E W S
S O M E G O O D D I D C O M E F R O M
T H E E R A T H O U G H ; M A N Y
R U T H L E S S B U S I N E S S M E N A N D
S L I C K P O L I T I C I A N S W E R E
E X P O S E D F O R T H E I R
I N J U S T I C E S
… A N D R O O T I N G O U T
C O R R U P T I O N S O F P O W E R W I L L
B E A T R A D E M A R K O F
I N V E S T I G AT I V E J O U R N A L I S M
F R O M N O W O N .

22. WHEN DID YELLOW
JOURNALISM END??
• One of the more disturbing features involved with
the former practice of yellow journalism is that
there is no definite line between this period of
yellow journalism and the period afterwards.
• Does this mean that yellow journalism simply faded
away, never to return?
• Or did it absorb itself into the very heart of our
newspapers, where it will remain forever?

23. MODERN
MUCKRAKERS
Michael
Moore
Morgan
Spurlock

24. INTRO TO JOURNALISM AND MEDIA
SEPTEMBER 20TH, 2018
• Finish Yellow Journalism T/F and Short Answer “Test”
• Discuss/Share Responses
• Discuss and View: How does the media affect people’s minds (scientifically)?
• How to Write a Film Review: Presentation and Discussion
• Start (If time) Citizen Kane

25. TRUE OR FALSE?
• Indicate whether the following statements are true or false.
• The goal of yellow journalism is to excite the audience and improve newspaper sales, rather than
informing people with real facts. _____
• In order to achieve its goals, yellow journalism relies on solid and verified facts. _____
• The term “yellow journalism” was coined from an old TV cartoon whose main character was “The
Yellow Kid”. _____
• Richard F. Outcault was working for New York World when he was offered a job at New York Journal.
_____
• William Randolph Hearst was the artist who created the character “The Yellow Kid”. _____
• At the time when New York World and New York Journal were publishing “The Yellow Kid”, honest
newspapers were less successful than the yellow press. _____
• American people did not like the idea of an absolutely free press. _____
• Banner headlines and coloured supplements in today’s newspapers were inspired from the yellow
press. _____
• Modern newspapers do not use catchy headlines, which is a sign that they are only concerned with
truth. _____