Yellow journalism involves sensationalism, exaggerations of news, and distorted stories. It began in the late 1800s when newspaper publishers Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst became involved in competition for circulation. Yellow journalism downplays legitimate news and promotes misleading headlines to boost sales and excite public opinion. Many of the stories are biased opinions masquerading as objective facts.
•Analyze and explain whether yellow journalism has simply faded away, or is still a part of news reporting.
•How skeptical should readers be while examining sources and stories in the news? Give an example of a news story you have recently read that was misleading or biased. Support your answers with a factual rationale. In reference to the news story that you just identified, provide at least two examples in which the reporter could have made the news story more reliable.
•How close are the crime reality shows to the real work of law enforcement officers? Is there any research to show whether fiction and “infotainment” television shows influence the expectations of people who seek employment with a police department?
The media tend to show crime that occurs least in society, murder and violent crime, while rarely focusing on the crime that occur the most, which are property crimes.
•Does the over-representation of violent crime in prime time television lead viewers to overestimate the amount of violence that occurs in the real world? What consequences does this have for public understanding of crime and justice policies?
