Yellow journalism

Yellow Journalism The term ‘yellow journalism came into vogue in the 19th century first, due to the war between the two leading newspaper of USA. To increase their readership both of these newspapers added spices to their stories for making them sensational. They also increased vivid use of cartoons, illustrations and drawings. As historians believe, the onset of the rapid industrialization was responsible for making yellow journalism popular. The Industrial Revolution on the whole affected the entire newspaper industry, allowing newspapers access to machines that could easily print thousands of papers in a single night. This is believed to have brought into play one of the most important characteristics of yellow journalism - the endless drive for circulation. And unfortunately, the publisher's greed was very often put before ethics.

Development of thought Yellow journalism is the practice of writing and presenting news stories with sensationalism. So often stories are presented in a distorted form and they carry misleading images. The sole purpose of yellow journalism is to boost newspaper sales and in exciting public opinion. It was mainly popularised as a media culture in the late 19th century by the two very prominent papers The New York World, run by Joseph Pulitzer and The New York Journal, run by William Randolph Hearst.

Although the initial practice which created this trend of yellow journalism was a series of peculiar circumstances, from a cartoon by the famous 19th century cartoonist, Robert Outcault called "The Yellow Kid”. The cartoon was first published in The New York World, owned by Joseph Pulitzer until Hearst (owner – New York Journal) hired him away to produce the strip in his newspaper.

Pulitzer then hired another artist to produce the same strip in his newspaper.

This comic strip happened to use a new special, non-smear yellow ink, and because of the significance of the comic strip, the term "yellow journalism" was

coined by critics. News was tampered, dramatized, and altered to the extent where publisher and editor believed that it would sell like hot cakes and capture public attention.

They often used the "Yellow Kid" to sensationalize stories and discredit the stories of other newspapers. The "Yellow Kid" became a symbol which swayed public opinions on important issues such as the Spanish-American war.

Newspapers today strive for objectivity, but it wasn’t the scenario in the previous era.

Many historians believe that Hearst in particular played a major role in the American involvement with Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Hearst saw the war as a prime opportunity to boost his newspaper sales. He stationed a team of reporters in Cuba to observe the occurrences there, and he was the first to do so. Hearst covered reports and features of brutality, cruelty and the trauma of people. With this he swayed the opinion of masses regarding America's involvement in the war. This period of sensationalism in journalism does stand out as a predominantly dark era in journalistic history. Americans demanded absolutely free press which further allowed many newspapers to take a tabloid form, which often appealed to the shorter attention spans and interests of the lower class. They printed whatever they desired and thought as a way to capture public attention. This also started a lot of fabrication and plagiarism of headlines and news stories.

As per the statistics, by the year 1910, circulation of these yellow tabloids dropped down sharply. But this did not mean that yellow journalism simply faded away, it would be right to say that it did absorb itself into the very heart of our newspapers. The currently present newspapers appear with eye- catchy headlines, humorous comic strips, special interest sections, invasive investigative reporting, etc. these serve as a constant reminder of the peculiar yellow journalism. Impartial and analytical reporting is being overshadowed by a flamboyant and irresponsible approach to news presentation.

Presses which were indulged into hard core journalism, have now turned to media houses. Role of being a watchdog of the society is subordinate to the aim

of achieving ratings and acquiring profits. Journalism is no less than a discipline.

It is an entire process of gathering, writing and reporting news in the purest form without any fabrication. Broadly it is the art of editing and presenting news reports into interesting readable stories. But currently rather than simply stating the truth and making people aware of "meaningful" changes around us, the media focuses on presenting an aggregated and perverted version of the most frivolous and trivial events. If plague is an epidemic for our world, similarly yellow journalism is also one big epidemic spreading widely in media circles.

Journalism has now stooped down to the level of scandal- fabrication, sensationalism, chauvinism and many other unethical or unprofessional practices by news media organizations and journalists. With the advent of yellow journalism, paid news and advertorials have also started trending.

Now PR agencies are paying news papers to maintain brand images and promote their brand or firm. Editorials in some of the news paper are advertorials where you can easily figure out the one sided biased and fancy opinions about the occurrences. Henceforth, journalists especially newspaper reporters, are not trusted by the public. A survey conducted by the market research company Moriin in February 2003 rated that the trust on journalists is even less when compared to the government ministers. They found that "75% of adults would not trust a journalist to tell them the truth". Even the death of Lady Diana, is an offshoot of yellow journalism. Paparazzi were following her car and the car had been chased through a Paris underpass by freelance photographers working for British and other newspapers, leading the accusation on publishers of having 'blood on their hands'. This is the level at which the press can lower down in order to sell a few extra copies of its edition!

The responsible ‘news hunter’ do not hesitate to blow a news out of proportion.

The recent MMS scandal of a 17 year old, from a renowned school of Delhi, forced not only the principal to throw her out of the school but also made it difficult for her to stay in India. Not even a single detail of the event was hidden, including names and details of those involved, which left permanent scars on her character making it impossible for her to face society. This instance along with innumerable others, stand for an explicit invasion of the law of privacy which is

recognition of the individual's right to be left alone and have his personal space inviolate.

The media in the modern era has left no stone unturned to infringe the privacy of people. It is because of the media and the rampant growth of yellow journalism that the private life of an individual has come in the public domain, thus exposing him to the risk of an incursion of his space. It is unfortunate that no country until now has a specific constitutional right called right of privacy.

In India, the right to privacy cannot be called a specific fundamental right but it has gained constitutional recognition. But it is still believed that ‘right to privacy’ is not a reasonable restriction. There are various case examples which prove the violation of privacy by journalists and other media. In Kaleidoscope (India) (P) Ltd. vs. Phoolan Devi, the trial Judge restrained the exhibition of the controversial film Bandit Queen both in India and abroad. The trial court reached a prima facie view that the film infringed the right to privacy of Phoolan Devi, as they can’t stage up an act of rape of a living woman. The question was to what extent private matters relating to her rape or the alleged murders committed by her could be commercially exploited, and not just as news items or matters of public interest Thus, justice was rendered by preventing by intrusion of privacy into the life of the one and only Bandit Queen.

In the feud between the Journalists and the Law, a flimsy argument put across by the journalists when reprimanded for their wrong doings is that there are too many restrictions put on them making a hostile environment for them to work forcing them to cross their boundaries. They conveniently blame the legal set up and the people for curtailing their right to spread awareness. The fact is that the law has given enough scope to journalism to do its job with full rationale and sincerity. In spite of that, out of sheer desperation for more fame and money, journalists have misused this freedom for their own vested interests.

Another rightly presented argument which is put across is that the audience of today demands what is being catered by the media to them. One can’t really put the whole blame on the journalists for the deterioration of the standards of reporting. The reason for the ever-rising TRP ratings of the entertainment industry are actually the viewers who prefer watching Rakhi Sawant basking

under all the publicity courtesy her controversial kiss with Mika or the immortal Baa of one of the K serials which gives a boost to the gossip-mongers in media and giving more footage to "junk news". So the first step to fight the amplification of Yellow Journalism would be to purify our thought process and to differentiate between right and wrong.

Conclusion It is not astonishing that yellow journalism has created a hue and cry in society and because it is a fact that the media has become a very powerful and influential tool, which has a reach throughout the country. It has the power to either 'make or break' a person as it possesses the power to both make a news and break a news. In introspection let's be aware that we as a common man have all the power to decide what we want to view, what we prefer to read and it is actually in our hands whether we choose to become a puppet in the hands of the fame-hungry journalists or not . Moreover, we need to understand, "balance between rights of an individual to be let alone and the fundamental right (of the press) to freedom of speech, expression and information."