Sensationalism
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In journalism and mass media, sensationalism is a type of editorial tactic. Events and topics in news stories are selected and worded to excite the greatest number of readers and viewers. This style of news reporting encourages biased or emotionally loaded impressions of events rather than neutrality, and may cause a manipulation to the truth of a story.[1][better source needed] Sensationalism may rely on reports about generally insignificant matters and portray them as a major influence on society, or biased presentations of newsworthy topics, in a trivial, or tabloid manner, contrary to general assumptions of professional journalistic standards.[2][3]
Some tactics include being deliberately obtuse,[4] appealing to emotions,[5][better source needed] being controversial, intentionally omitting facts and information,[6][better source needed] being loud and self-centered, and acting to obtain attention.[5][better source needed] Trivial information and events are sometimes misrepresented and exaggerated as important or significant, and often include stories about the actions of individuals and small groups of people,[1][better source needed] the content of which is often insignificant and irrelevant to the macro-level day-to-day events occurring globally.
History
In A History of News, Mitchell Stephens notes sensationalism can be found in the Ancient Roman gazette Acta Diurna, where official notices and announcements were presented daily on public message boards, the perceived content of which spread with enthusiasm in illiterate societies.[2] Sensationalism was used in books of the 16th and 17th century, to teach moral lessons. According to Stephens, sensationalism brought the news to a new audience when it became aimed at the lower class, who had less of a need to accurately understand politics and the economy, to occupy them in other matters. Through sensationalism, he claims, the audience was further educated and encouraged to take more interest in the news.[2]
The more modern forms of sensationalism developed in the course of the nineteenth century in parallel with the expansion of print culture in industrialized nations. A genre of British literature, "sensation novels," became in the 1860s an example of how the publishing industry could capitalize on surprising narrative to market serialized fiction in periodicals.[citation needed] The attention-grasping rhetorical techniques found in sensation fiction were also employed in articles on science, modern technology, finance, and in historical accounts of contemporary events.[7] Sensationalism in nineteenth century could be found in popular culture, literature, performance, art history, theory, pre-cinema, and early cinema.[8]
Underlying causes
The role of profit
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In the late 1800s, falling costs in paper production and rising revenues in advertising in the U.S. led to a drastic rise in newspaper's circulation,[9] which attracted the growing audiences that advertisers desired. One presumed goal of sensational reporting is to increase or sustain viewership or readership, from which media outlets can price their advertising higher to increase their profits based on higher numbers of viewers and/or readers.[10][11][better source needed] Sometimes this can lead to a lesser focus on objective journalism in favor of a profit motive,[12] in which editorial choices are based upon sensational stories and presentations to increase advertising revenue.[12] Additionally, advertisers tend to have a preference for their products or services to be reported positively in mass media, which can contribute to bias in news reporting in favor of media outlets protecting their profits and revenues, rather than reporting objectively about stated products and services.[11][13][better source needed]
The Watergate scandal has been credited by some with creating distrust in government and opening the door for a new business tactic for the media that resulted in the spread of negative, dishonest and misleading news coverage of American politics;[12][14] such examples include the labeling of a large number of political scandals, regardless of their importance, with the suffix "-gate".[14]
Sensationalism has also been blamed for the infotainment style of many news programs on radio and television.[2] According to sociologist John Thompson, the debate of sensationalism used in the mass medium of broadcasting is based on a misunderstanding of its audience, especially the television audience. Thompson explains that the term 'mass' (which is connected to broadcasting) suggests a 'vast audience of many thousands, even millions of passive individuals'.[3] Television news is restricted to showing the scenes of crimes rather than the crime itself because of the unpredictability of events, whereas newspaper writers can always recall what they did not witness.[2][verification needed]
Politics
The relationship of sensationalism to politics is not new.[15] CBS News in 2020 described Trump as using fear, anxiety and anger to try and motivate voters.[16]
Novelty
When trying to cater to younger audiences, news stories that are more sensational and unusual will often drown out stories that may be considered less exciting but more significant. In Mass Media and American Politics, Doris A. Graber and Johanna Dunaway give the example of how the Chicago Sun Times will give 20 times more space to sports in comparison to the state government. Covering singular news stories that are considered dramatic can lead to other stories being obscured.[17][page needed]
Time constraints
In a 24-hour news cycle, there will be instances where there is little news happening along with no developments in stories that are considered important and because of this they will need to fill the time by sharing a story that is less so about actual news and more intended to keep the audience's attention.[18]
Features of sensationalism
Language
One feature of sensationalistic news is the intensification of language used in the article.[19] Language that is sensationalist often is dramatic although vague yet hyperbolic usually at the expense of giving a distortion of reality.[20] The most common use of sensationalist language is in the headlines of news articles.[15]
"Slam Journalism" is a term describing the rise of intense, emotionally charged language in headlines, notably the use of the word slam to mean criticize.[21][better source needed] The data scientist Cory Booker suggests that news agencies simply "[speak] the language that resonates with their audience best."[21][better source needed]
Below are examples of such headlines, with the intense language highlighted in bold.[21][better source needed]
- “Trump Slams Russia Investigation And Green New Deal At CPAC," NPR on March 2, 2019
- “Democrats Blast Biden For Recalling ‘Civil’ Relationship With Segregationists” NPR on June 19, 2019
- "Ocasio-Cortez slams Jerry Falwell Jr. in debate over CPAC comments" Fox News on March 5, 2019
The teaser
David Berube considers the use of headlines to be the primary way sensationalism manifests in media, by creating teasers that use emotion to try and capture the attention of an audience even if the headline exaggerates or is otherwise misleading.[15]
Fearmongering
The use of fearmongering is sometimes used by media outlets as well to gain attention to their content.[15]
Impacts of sensationalism
Zeynep Tufecki argues that it's easier to shift the "Overton window" online thanks to algorithms replacing traditional gatekeepers of journalism.[22]
C.P. Chandrasekhar argues that news outlets are at a higher risk of releasing content that is false because of how quickly news is circulated through the internet in order to capitalize on those views and clicks for profit.[23][verification needed][better source needed]
Joe Sommerlad criticized algorithms used by Google News for not promoting more trustworthy sources.[24]
Responses to sensationalism
Fact-checking websites, media literacy, better content moderation on social media, and legislation have been pursued to reduce the negative impacts of algorithms and sensational media.[25]
See also
- Agnotology, the study of culturally-induced ignorance or doubt
- Exploitation film
- Junk food news
- Media circus
- Media manipulation
- Propaganda model, in mass media
- Sound bite
References
- ^ a b "Issue Area: Sensationalism". Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting. Archived from the original on 5 February 2012. Retrieved 21 June 2011.
- ^ a b c d e Stephens, Mitchell (2007). A History of News (3 ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 55–57. ISBN 978-0-19-518991-9.
- ^ a b Thompson, John (June 22, 1999). "The Media and Modernity". In Mackay, Hugh; O'Sullivan, Tim (eds.). The Media Reader: Continuity and Transformation. Sage Publications Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7619-6250-2.
- ^ "Sensationalism." Webster's Dictionary. Accessed June 2011.
- ^ a b "Sensationalism." The Free Dictionary. Accessed June 2011.
- ^ "Issue Area: Narrow Range of Debate." Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting. Accessed June 2011.
- ^ Alberto Gabriele, Reading Popular Culture in Victorian Print: Belgravia and Sensationalism, New York and London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009 ISBN 978-0-230-61521-2
- ^ Alberto Gabriele, ed. Sensationalism and the Genealogy of Modernity: a Global Nineteenth Century Perspective. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016 ISBN 978-1-137-60128-5
- ^ Kaplan, Richard L. (2008-06-05), "Yellow Journalism", The International Encyclopedia of Communication, Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, doi:10.1002/9781405186407.wbiecy001, ISBN 978-1-4051-8640-7, retrieved 2021-03-31
- ^ "What's Wrong With The News?" Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting. Accessed June 2011.
- ^ a b "Issue Area: Advertiser Influence." Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting. Accessed June 2011.
- ^ a b c McChesney, Fred S. (1987). "Sensationalism, Newspaper Profits and the Marginal Value of Watergate". Economic Inquiry. 25 (1): 135–44.
- ^ "Issue Area: Censorship." Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting. Accessed June 2011.
- ^ a b Finney, Daniel P. (16 June 2012). "Watergate scandal changed the political landscape forever". USA Today. Archived from the original on 8 November 2019.
- ^ a b c d Vanacore, Ryan (November 12, 2021). "Sensationalism in Media". Reporter Magazine.
- ^ Watson, Kathryn (2020-09-29). "Trump banks on fear and anxiety to motivate voters - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
- ^ Graber, Doris A.; Dunaway, Johanna (2017). Mass Media and American Politics. SAGE Publications. ISBN 9781506340241. Retrieved March 8, 2024 – via Google Books.
When the goal is to attract young viewers, sensational and novel occurrences often drown out news of more significant that lacks excitement. For instance, a fairly typical newspaper such as the Chicago Sun Times devotes nearly twenty times more space to sports than to news about the state's government. Dramatic events, such as airline hijackings or serial murders, preempt more far-reaching consequential happenings. Preoccupation with a single striking event, such as the 2009 impeachment of Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, can shortchange coverage of other news
- ^ Thiel, Kristin (2018). Television News and the 24-Hour News Cycle. Cavendish Square. p. 30. ISBN 9781502634931 – via Google Books.
- ^ Burgers, Christian; de Graaf, Anneke (2013-01-29). "Language intensity as a sensationalistic news feature: The influence of style on sensationalism perceptions and effects". Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research. 38 (2). doi:10.1515/commun-2013-0010. ISSN 1613-4087.
- ^ "How to Spot 16 Types of Media Bias". AllSides. Retrieved March 9, 2024.
- ^ a b c Foster, Corbin (October 4, 2019). "Blog: The Rise of "Slam" Journalism". Textio. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
- ^ Tufekci, Zeynep (2016-03-31). "Opinion | Adventures in the Trump Twittersphere". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-04-01.
- ^ Chandrasekhar, C.P. (2013). "The Business of News in the Age of the Internet". Social Scientist. 41 (5/6): 25–39. ISSN 0970-0293. JSTOR 23611116.
- ^ Sommerlad, Joe (2018-06-18). "This is how Google News decides what to show you". The Independent. Retrieved 2020-03-11.
- ^ Vasu, Norman; Ang, Benjamin; Teo, Terri-Anne; Jayakumar, Shashi; Faizal, Muhammad; Ahuja, Juhi (2018). "International Responses to Fake News". Fake News: National Security in the Post-Truth Era. S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. pp. 18–25. JSTOR resrep17648.8.
