Monday, January 28, 2019

Yellow Journalism in the 21st Century - Hadley McGhee

Collins' Dictionary defines yellow journalism as "the use of cheaply sensational or unscrupulous methods in newspapers, etc. to attract or influence readers," and while some of the headlines are pretty funny, this is still a big problem in 2019. Stretching the truth in journalism might not sound that bad, but remember, yellow journalism helped start the Spanish-American war.

So, without further ado, here are some 2018 and 2019 yellow journalism pieces, to show that this phenomenon is still a big deal in today's society.

Yellow Journalism Leaning Blue

Rudy Giuliani is Going to Prison After All - Palmer Report

What's wrong with this:
1. We don't have any real evidence that Giuliani is or will be indicted yet.
2. The writer uses the Mueller investigation to excite and anger democrats. (When  Giuliani ISN'T arrested, people get mad, causing backlash not at the false journalism, but at whomever disproves it.)

Trump Wanted Even the Robot Version of Himself at Disney World to be a Lying Braggart - Alternet

What's wrong with this:
1. Where did they even get this information
2. The Title is ALREADY a Slam at the subject. Most factual articles have pretty neutral headlines

Yellow Journalism Leaning Red

Microsoft Conspiring With Pro-Monsanto Front Group to Censor Anti-GMO News - World Truth TV

What's wrong with this:
1. Literally nobody else is talking about this. Typically real news has more than one source reporting on it
2. If it feels like clickbait, it probably is

Proof: Gay Frogs Are Real - InfoWars
1. Gay frogs? Really?
2. Gay frogs? Really?

Millions of Illegal Immigrants Voted in the 2016 Election - InfoWars
1. There was no evidence of this
2. When several states recounted in 2016 and 2017, they found that more voter fraud had occurred in favor of Trump

Yellow journalism, though it now consists of gay frogs and robots rather than Spanish American War news, is just as bad as the original yellow journalism that permanently tainted good reporting in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

DISCLAIMER: THE ABOVE ARTICLES ARE NOT VERIFIED AND I DO NOT RECOMMEND BELIEVING THEM. IF YOU CHOOSE TO DO SO, THAT IS YOUR OWN BAD DECISION AND I, MS. COUNTRYMAN, AND D.I.S.D. ARE NOT LIABLE FOR FOR WHAT MISINFORMATION YOU CHOOSE TO BELIEVE.

4 comments:

  1. Yellow Journalism is just a fancy synonym for messy people.

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  2. In this day when there are so many sources for news, you would think that everybody would read a verified source, no matter how left or right it is. Good information!

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  3. The fact that you even have to include a disclaimer to say that these articles are most likely unreliable really shows how uninformed some news sources and readers are. This is the age of technology, and yet some people still couldn't be bothered to do their research.

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  4. This was really interesting to look at! I really liked how you completely showed us the parallels between years ago and today. I never thought about yellow journalism as clickbait, but that's actually a pretty accurate synonym.

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