Injournalism andmass media,sensationalism is a type ofeditorial tactic. Events and topics innews stories are selected and worded to excite the greatest number of readers and viewers. This style of news reporting encouragesbiased or emotionally loaded impressions of events rather thanneutrality, and may cause amanipulation 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 ofnewsworthy topics, in a trivial, ortabloid manner, contrary to general assumptions of professionaljournalistic standards.[2][3]
Some tactics include being deliberately obtuse,[4]appealing to emotions,[5][better source needed] beingcontroversial, intentionallyomitting facts andinformation,[6][better source needed] being loud andself-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] thecontent of which is often insignificant and irrelevant to the macro-level day-to-day events occurring globally.
InA History of News,Mitchell Stephens notes sensationalism can be found in theAncient Roman gazetteActa Diurna, where official notices and announcements were presented daily on public message boards, the perceived content of which spread with enthusiasm inilliterate societies.[2] Sensationalism was used in books of the 16th and 17th century, to teachmorallessons. According to Stephens, sensationalism brought the news to a new audience when it became aimed at thelower class, who had less of a need to accurately understandpolitics and theeconomy, 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]
In the Soviet Union, strong censorship resulted in only "positive occurrences" being reported on, with the news looking significantly different than in the West.[9][additional citation(s) needed]
In the United States, modern sensationalism in the news increased after the repeal of theFairness Doctrine in 1987 by theFederal Communications Commission which required broadcasters when showing one partisan view to show another[10][page needed] and in order to be a broadcaster one needed a license.[11] In Western Europe sensationalism in the news also increased after the liberalization of television networks in the late 1980s and early 1990s.[12]
.jpg)
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,[13] which attracted the growing audiences that advertisers desired. One presumed goal of sensational reporting is to increase or sustainviewership or readership, from which media outlets can price theiradvertising higher to increase theirprofits based on higher numbers of viewers and/or readers.[14][15][better source needed] Sometimes this can lead to a lesser focus onobjective journalism in favor of aprofit motive,[16] in which editorial choices are based upon sensational stories and presentations to increase advertisingrevenue.[16] 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 reportingobjectively about stated products and services.[15][17][better source needed] The more dependent news organizations are on advertising revenue a greater number of sensationalist news stories are produced is argued by Paul Hendriks Vettehen and Mariska Kleemans inProving the Obvious? What Sensationalism Contributes to the Time Spent on News Video.[18]
TheWatergate 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;[16][19] such examples include the labeling of a large number of political scandals, regardless of their importance, with thesuffix "-gate".[19]
Sensationalism has also been blamed for theinfotainment style of many news programs on radio and television.[2] According tosociologist 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 theunpredictability of events, whereas newspaper writers can always recall what they did not witness.[2][verification needed]
On web-based platforms such asFacebook,Google andYouTube their respective algorithms are used to maximize advertising revenue by attracting and keeping the attention of users. This business model results in sensationalist content often being prioritized as algorithms often predict that it will get the highest amount of engagement.[20]
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. InMass Media and American Politics,Doris A. Graber and Johanna Dunaway give the example of how theChicago 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.[21][page needed]
In a24-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.[22]
In news markets where there is more competition, the more likely a certain news outlet will be to produce sensationalist stories as a way to compete with other outlets, creating asnowball effect.[23]
One feature of sensationalistic news is the intensification of language used in the article.[24] The most common use of sensationalist language is in the headlines of news articles.[25]
"Slam Journalism" is a term describing the rise of intense, emotionally charged language in headlines, notably the use of the wordslam to meancriticize.[26][better source needed] Thedata scientist Cory Booker suggests that news agencies simply "[speak] the language that resonates with their audience best."[26][better source needed]
Below are examples of such headlines, with the intense language highlighted in bold.[26][better source needed]
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.[25] In YouTube videos, the thumbnail image of a video can similarly mislead audiences.[27]
The use offearmongering is sometimes used by media outlets as well to gain attention to their content.[25]
Zeynep Tufecki argues that it's easier to shift the "Overton window" online thanks to algorithms replacing traditional gatekeepers of journalism.[28]
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.[29][verification needed][better source needed]
Joe Sommerlad criticized algorithms used by Google News for not promoting more trustworthy sources.[30]
One of the most prominent and most covered news topics is crime being represented disproportionately to other social problems.[31] Most often what is covered is the "accounts of the commission of crime and law-enforcement activities." A lesser amount but still significant level is given to court proceedings and the least related to corrections giving the public a limited understand of the criminal justice system and the social contexts of crime.[32]
With science news, the press release may be relied upon heavily, which can exaggerate or spin the findings. One theory for this practice, in addition to time constraints, is that journalists do not access academic articles as much since many are behind paywalls.[33] One example of sensationalism in science news was in 1998 whenAndrew Wakefield published a study inThe Lancet showing alink between MMR vaccines and autism[33] with it reaching the news media via press releases and a news conference[34] getting widespread coverage despite the publication being flawed and the article later being debunked and retracted.[33]
Political polarization anddemocratic backsliding can be exacerbated by the media environment and its incentives towards sensationalism.[35][36] Algorithms that elevate sensational and inflammatory content across a range of platforms includingsocial media,Google, and others have received criticism as fueling division in society.[37][38] This extends beyond sorting people intoecho chambers andfilter bubbles to include radicalization by showing more extreme content in order to boost engagement.[39]
Fact-checking websites,media literacy, bettercontent moderation on social media, and legislation have been pursued to reduce the negative impacts of algorithms and sensational media.[40][41] When American public television news came about in the mid-20th century it came about in part in response to the commercial news stations having sensationalized news prioritized above that of "serious reporting".[42]
Some have argued thatdifferent algorithms and platform incentives are needed to reduce modern sensationalism both online and among politicians reacting to those online incentives.[43]Andrew Leonard describesPol.is as one possible solution to the sensationalism of traditional discourse on social media that has damaged democracies, citing the use of its algorithm to instead prioritize finding consensus.[44][45]
no dramatic or sensationalism news: no accidents, no murder, adulteries or corruptions
Today, we're living through a second Party Press Era combined with a second Yellow Journalism Era-blatant partisanship combined with sensationalism. This is probably most evident in the coverage of cable television's 24-hour news channels. It started with the 1987 repeal by President Ronald Reagan's Federal Communications Commission of the 1949 so-called "Fairness Doctrine" which had required broadcasters to counter any partisan view with the opposite side
The liberalization of West European television systems in the late 1980s and early 1990s is often linked to an increase of infotainment and sensationalism in television news coverage
In addition, the more news organizations are dependent on advertising revenues (commercial vs. public service stations), the more sensationalist news stories they produce
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
One of the most prevalent subjects of media discourse is crime. Crime is represented in many different media categories from entertainment to news and intermediate forms such as infotainment. While entertainment media doubtlessly have a significant socializing effect, they generally do not claim to be a true representation of reality. However, news media do make this claim (Mason, 2006; Surette, 2003). Despite this, studies show that when it comes to crime, media representations do not accurately reflect reality (Surette, 2003).. Additionally, crime news is one of the most prominent categories in news media; it is covered disproportionately more than other social problems (Leishman & Mason, 2003; Gans, 2004).
Still, the research sheds light on how Facebook's algorithm works. The studies found liberals and conservatives live in their own political news bubbles more so than elsewhere online. They also show that changing the platform's algorithm substantially changes what people see and how they behave on the site — even if it didn't affect their beliefs during the three-month period researchers studied...'This is interesting, strong evidence that when it comes to politics, the algorithm is biased towards the extremes,' Edelson said. 'This is genuinely new.'
.jpg)
