WEEK 10: Yellow Journalism & Sensationalism

America's long tradition of isolationism came to an end with
the Spanish-American War. Did the press help start it?

CONSIDER   We've talked about how newspapers moved away from getting direct support from political parties with the transition to the Penny Press Era. The upshot of that transition was that actually selling newspapers — lots of them — became a life-and-death struggle for newspapers. Competition became cutthroat as publishers struggled to beat the competition, which led directly to the rise of Yellow Journalism, with its blaring headlines and sensational storytelling as a means of doing one thing: making money.

READ    This concise entry from the First Amendment Encyclopedia about the rise and maturing of Yellow Journalism as an enduring feature of the news industry. (It's not long.) Yes, the yellow strain is alive and well. (Nancy Grace, anyone?)

WATCH   This six-minute video and ponder parallels to our current media landscape. 

WRITE   A short blog post about this short video as an optional post to help you go beyond the minimum. (Life axiom: Min. doesn't win the A.)

MOVIE DAY!   Enjoy in class a 1937 thriller about the interactions among Yellow Journalism, bare-knuckle politics and a corrupt criminal justice system — THEY WON'T FORGET (official trailer). I'll bring snacks!

REMEMBER   You are working on a major assignment right now, the KEY POST that we launched last week in which you are developing research skills using real databases. This will be graded separately, and meeting your deadline is a crucial part of the exercise. It is due at the start of class April 1. I will not grade any posts made after that time/date. 

ENJOY   On your own time and for your own pleasure, watch one of the GREATEST MOVIES OF ALL TIME, which happens to be all about Yellow Journalism — CITIZEN KANE. (It's too long for us to watch together in class.) Would make a great extra post!  Invite some friends over — it really is that good.

ALSO   Edward G. Robinson stars in this gripping tale of the birth of the Reuters News Agency, the British version of the Associated Press, in the 1940 Warner Bros. hit A DISPATCH FROM REUTERS. 

OPTIONAL POST   Write a blog post about the movie we watched, "They Won't Forget," focusing on the role of the press in the events surrounding the crime, the trial and the lynching of an innocent man. Consider:

• Terms like "trial by media" and "trial of the century."
  
• Can the press cause a "media circus" or "circus environment" or "media frenzy" that could seriously jeopardize a fair trial?
• Consider the Supreme Court case of Sheppard v. Maxwell (1966). Hmmm.