Concepts

Yellow Journalism

Journalism

Citation Formats

General Reference

Film and Media Atlas. "Yellow Journalism." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://media.interactiveatlas.org/concepts/yellow-journalism.

APA Style

Film and Media Atlas. (n.d.). Yellow Journalism. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://media.interactiveatlas.org/concepts/yellow-journalism

BibTeX

@misc{filmandmediaatlas-yellow-journalism,
  author = {Film and Media Atlas},
  title = {Yellow Journalism},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://media.interactiveatlas.org/concepts/yellow-journalism},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Sensationalized, exaggerated reporting designed to boost circulation rather than inform, named for the Yellow Kid comic strip that both Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal used as a weapon in their 1895 to 1898 circulation war. The style favored scare headlines, crime stories and jingoistic coverage of the run up to the Spanish American War over verified fact.

Facts

Concept Domain

Journalism 1

Formulated Year

1895 1

1895 marks the Yellow Kid strip and the start of the Pulitzer-Hearst circulation war; the practice is usually dated to the whole 1895 to 1898 period rather than one exact year.

Cross-Tradition Connections