• Maria Droniuk

• Diana Nahorniak

Sensationalism
Sensationalism - is a tactic used in an attempt to gain an
audience’s attention. Media outlets resort to the use of
shocking words, exaggeration and sometimes blatant lies.
One of the biggest uses of sensationalism is headlines. When you are looking at a magazine or website and see those big
bolded words, they attract your attention. News and media outlets know that headlines attract readers, so they use this
to their advantage. Often times headlines feature an over-exaggerated display of events. With the right wording, the
most mundane thing can be blown out of proportion.

Fear-mongering is the act of intentionally playing with the fears of others to arouse fear or anger — another
sensationalist tactic. Media outlets will prey on the fears of others in order for them to notice their content.
“Once you get someone's attention, then you know you can weave
your way through a very convoluted and probably implausible
argument and make it appear more reasonable.”
3 HEADLINES WITH
EXAMPLE OF
SENSATIONALISM:
 1. An article published on The Single talked about instances where cases like this can cause serious
problems. It brought up the "Covington Catholic Boys" incident, where students were doxed and
harassed because CNN falsely accused them of harassing Indigenous protesters in Washington D.C.
They based this information on one video without doing any further information. The truth only came
out when other news outlets found false information in the story.

Instances like this are sensationalist, from misleading headlines to spreading harmful information. There are personal
repercussions these types of articles have on people’s lives.
An example of sensationalism would be
when Trump picked up on the
nickname "Crooked Hillary" to describe
his opponent in the 2016 election.
2. CBS News did an article during the
election last year, talking about how
Trump used fear and anxiety to
motivate voters. Trump would say
things like, “No one will be safe in
Biden’s America.”
These exaggerations and lies are what
shaped the political climate from 2016
all the way through 2020.
 Circulation wars between Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst became famous, as both media titans were
accused of sensationalizing the news in an attempt to sell more papers.

3. "The peak of yellow journalism, in terms of both intensity and influence, came in early 1898, when a U.S. battleship,
the Maine, sunk in Havana harbor," according to the Office of the Historian. "The naval vessel had been sent there not
long before in a display of U.S. power and, in conjunction with the planned visit of a Spanish ship to New York, an effort
to defuse growing tensions between the United States and Spain. On the night of February 15, an explosion tore through
the ship’s hull, and the Maine went down. Sober observers and an initial report by the colonial government of Cuba
concluded that the explosion had occurred on board, but Hearst and Pulitzer, who had for several years been selling
papers by fanning anti-Spanish public opinion in the United States, published rumors of plots to sink the ship."

Shortly after a U.S. naval investigation had ultimately stated that the explosion had come from a mine in the harbor, the
Spanish-American War had begun. As such, yellow journalism is largely credited to creating a climate conducive to the
outbreak of international conflict, though it alone didn't actually inflect the war.
!Thank you for attention!