The War Photographer: Effects of Sensationalism and Yellow Journalism in the News Industry

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Based on “The War Photographer”, what has the effects of sensationalism and yellow journalism been on the news industry?

Sensationalism and yellow journalism are two very famous terms within the news industry. Before we can discuss how sensationalism and yellow journalism has affected the news industry, we have to first understand the meaning of these two terms. Sensationalism is defined as exaggerating news material in order to gain public attention while yellow journalism is a negative reference to journalism that features scandal-mongering, sensationalism, or other unethical or unprofessional practices by news media organizations or journalists in order to gain the attention of the readers. Because news programs have to compete with competitors to fight for audience share in order to secure advertising fees, they resorted to practicing yellow journalism and sensationalism. The effects of these practices have led to the questioning of the credibility of the mass media. Now, we are beginning to wonder if the news we read and hear about everyday are based on unbiased opinions or are we manipulated by the news company in order to boost their ratings? Also, we now wonder if today's "breaking news" is manipulated as well. Nowadays, journalism has become a race between the news companies to see who can be the first to air it with no regards if the information is correct, just as long as the station is able to release the news story before their competitors to raise the majority of the viewers. The more viewers the news company receives, the more the news company is able to charge for advertising viewed during their news hour. As a result, the audiences now have to draw their own conclusions rather than blindly absorbing everything they are told or shown. As audiences, we now have to get informed by doing our own research from multiple sources such as the internet rather than rely on the conventional news mediums. We no longer have as much faith...
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