On the Media: Yellow Journalism Fever?
August 14th, 2010I just listened to this show on National Public Radio on the way back from Montgomery, just after having a conversation about objective journalism and the film idea I’m working on about the subject. This research could help that project, so I’m passing it on and archiving it here.
On NPR’s show “On the Media,” Bob Garfield asked:
Last week, Slate’s press critic Jack Shafer wrote in praise of yellow journalism, quote: “I wish our better newspapers availed themselves of some of the techniques of yellow journalism. Yes, the journalism of William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal and Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World from the 1980s. At its best it was terrific, at its worst it wasn’t that bad.”
Campbell’s response:
In making the case that journalism in the Gilded Age was much better than its tawdry reputation, Shafer cites the book Yellow Journalism: Puncturing the Myths, Defining the Legacies, by American University Professor W. Joseph Campbell. Campbell says that Hearst described his own particular style of journalism as, quote, “journalism of action.”
“He meant that newspapers had an obligation to do more than just comment on the passing scene of news and events in the world, but to actually engage in making society, making the city, making the country a better place,” Campbell said.
Now are you getting the picture?
A message to bloggers. It’s not just about commenting on news reports…
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August 14th, 2010 at 7:34 pm
Hearst got a bad rep because of the involvement of his papers, notably the NY Journal, in “promoting” the Spanish-American War in 1898, among other things. At least he had a position on things and, as is evident in a study of the history of the latter 19th and early 20th century, the owners of the big papers of the day were not afraid of taking on the captains of other big commercial concerns. They wanted to sell papers, of course, and had no vested interest in protecting, say, J. P. Morgan or Henry Ford when there was a sensational story to be had that would move those papers.
Today, the corporate media/corporate business alliance focuses, not on investigative journalism, but what could be described as “bread and circuses” — absolutely meaningless “news” about celebrities, about Washington insider political doings, and so forth. Roman emperors would be envious.
August 14th, 2010 at 7:45 pm
If you read further into the links off Campbell’s Yellow Journalism site linked in the text above, you will see he is a journalism historian and this is typical of the field, although perhaps better than most. He’s selling this as a popular book by focusing on Yellow Journalism, but it is actually quite the academic treatment (note the style of the sample and all the footnotes).
He has another study published in a journalism history journal about 1897, a pivotal year to be sure, mainly due to new technology. The first half-tone of a photo was published in a daily paper that year. Adolph Ochs had purchased the New York Times in 1896. Changes were afoot…
August 14th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
Obit: Adolph S. Ochs Dead at 77; Publisher of Times Since 1896
August 14th, 2010 at 8:59 pm
Another perspective.
The Family Behind the Times: Powerful but no longer private
August 14th, 2010 at 10:11 pm
What is the film idea?
August 14th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
I told you before, and have written about it a few times. Don’t want to give away too much.
In a phrase: Explaining the origins of and defining Objective Journalism in the post-Yellow Journalism period. Key word being science, not Fox News’ “fair and balanced.”
August 14th, 2010 at 11:17 pm
More reading:
1897: American Journalism’s Exceptional Year