Tabloids: A Representation of what we consider News
Why is it that every time we see that someone is keeping a journal we have that gut urge to sneak into their bag and read all of their innermost thoughts? We all experience it. Although most want to deny it, there is no escaping that part of us that wants to know all we can about other people. Luckily, there is a medium that lets us do just that. Tabloids make the lives of others, especially celebrities, an open book for all to read and scrutinize. Not only do tabloids offer the lives of others on a silver platter, but they also let readers get sensational satisfaction, meaning they have the ability to be actively involved in articles with all their senses. Emotional stories, graphic images, terrifying fantastic epics, the lives of others, are all presented to readers in one convenient medium; the tabloid.
The tabloid is not a new medium whatsoever, in fact the model for the modern tabloid dates all the way back to folklore. Before the printing press was introduced into society, oral storytelling was the only way society satisfied their craving for scandal and thrilling stories. People spoke about their neighbor’s business and far-fetched happenings, and the only way to pass those stories on was to tell the story. Just like a game of telephone that we have all played in grade school, stories ended up changing and being misconstrued to later form urban legends that we still hear about today.
It wasn’t until Johann Gutenberg introduced the printing press in the 1450’s that the ancestors of tabloids truly emerged in a form that specifically helped to shape the modern tabloid we see today. America and Europe experienced a monumental transformation because...
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Cuozzo, Steven. Its Alive! How America’s Oldest Newspaper Cheated Death and Why is Matters. New York: Random House, 1996.
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Barkin, Steve M. The Journalist Storyteller: A Interdisciplinary Perspective. American Journalism Vol 1. 1984.
Throughout Chapter 5 of “Covering America” by Christopher Daly, there were a few newspapers that changed journalism. The St. Louis Dispatch, the World, and The Examiner played a major role in journalism and set themselves apart from other previous newspapers. Joseph Pulitzer started both the St. Louis Dispatch and the World. According to Daly, Pulitzer used his paper to, “crusade against
Swanson, D., and Johnston, D. "A Content Analysis of Motherhood Ideologies and Myths in Magazines." Invisible Mothers. New York: Plenum Publishing Corporation, 2003. 21-31.
The Prime Minister of Spain once told an American, “The newspapers in your country seem to be more powerful than the government.” This statement was never more true than in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. The rulers of the New York newspaper empire, Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, battled against one another in the ultimate test of journalism. With a real war on the horizon, these men fought to produce the most sensational stories Americans had ever read; and, as a result, they brought forth a new age in the American newspaper business, an age of fighting for the little guy, and beating back tyranny one paper at a time.
In the documentary film, Page One: Inside The New York Times, the inner world of journalism is revealed through journalists David Carr and Brian Stelter as the newspaper company The New York Times, struggles to keep alive within a new wave of news journalism. The film is dedicated to reveal the true inner mechanics of what modern day new journalists face on a daily basis and leaves the audience almost in a state of shock. It broadcasts news journalism as yes, an old school method of news generation, but it also highlights an important component that reveals the importance behind this “old school” methodology. We often think that progression always correlates with positive products, but the documentary insists that within the case of modern journalism, the new wave method is actually a detriment that can reap negative consequences.
Today’s mass media has been molded by hundreds of years of reporting, journalism, and personal opinions. America’s mainstream media thrives upon stretching the truth and ‘creating’ interesting stories for the public. Tactics like this can be credited to people such as William Randolph Hearst, a newspaper mogul from the late 19th to the 20th centuries. Hearst greatly influenced the practice of American journalism through his wealth, short political career, and use of unorthodox reporting methods such as yellow journalism.
Celebrity blogs typically provide great insight into the three important theoretical perspectives in sociology. This paper will analyze the data obtained from five selected celebrity gossip blogs, such as Celebitchy, Yahoo Celebrity, The Huffington Post, Time, and SheKnows. The analysis will be based on the theoretical perspectives of celebrity gossip, particularly conflict theory. For instance, it will address the inequalities that exist in the gossip blogs based on race, gender, class, or sexual inequalities. Additionally, it will identify the interests of those served by the blogs as well as those who get exploited or suffer as a result of the publication of the blogs.
In ‘The Peek-a-Boo World,’ chapter 5 of Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman argues that the 19th century saw America begin to develop a shallow and sensationalist culture that only took information and media at face value. In support of his argument he makes the following three points: that telegraphs allowed insignificant information to be easily conveyed, thus cheapening media as a whole; that penny newspapers used more readily accessible information from telegraphs to begin printing countless sensationalist headlines; and that the popularization of photographs began to draw people to superficial images rather than the articles that they were intended to be supporting.
The author provides a rough timeline of the objective norm emerging in American journalism, and explains the inner origin of these co...
The term “muckraking” was coined by Theodore Roosevelt because according to Roosevelt the journalist “raked up “filth” at his feet”. Before the 1880s, quality magazines were expensive and had poor circulation around the nation. Newspaper on the other hand were more popular with the public and of course they were cheaper. Entering the 1880s, technological developments made the circulations of magazines popular and affordable for
Johnson, Michael L. The New Journalism: The Underground Press, the Artists of Nonfiction, and Changes in the Established Media. Lawrence: University of Kansas, 1971. Print.
Pearce, Lynn M. "SIC 5994: News Dealers and Newsstands." Encyclopedia of American Industries. 6th ed. Detroit, MI: Thomson/Gale, 2005. Print.
tabloid papers but this one isn't. I bought it on the 19th of May 2004
During these difficult economic times sensationalism has become more prevalent in the media. Stories involving sex scandals and child murders have taken over our T.V and internet screens as well as the front pages of our newspapers. The media bias of sensationalism has been used as a sort of escapism for readers. Although it may seem that sensationalism has just started making waves, it has been around for decades. Sensationalism has been influencing viewers and contributing to media bias since the days of the penny press. Sensationalisms long history has been turbulent, self-serving, and influential to today’s reporting practices. With the influence over readers’ sensationalism’s media bias have and will continue to affect media reporting for years to come.
I intend to conduct research into the widespread fall of newspaper sales, and how the Internet is causing this, if it is even. Furthermore I will branch out into whether the journalists themselves are to blame, or simply because of citizens’ lack of interest in news, whether it is in the newspaper or the television. I will also investigate how people read their news; do they purchase a broadsheet? What interests them? How much does the Internet take the place of the newspaper? These are all questions and more that I intend to research thoroughly, perhaps with the help of the general public.
The newspaper industry presaged its decline after the introduction of the television and televised broadcasting in the 1950s and then after the emergence of the internet to the public in the 1990s and the 21st century with its myriad of media choices for people. Since then the readership of printed media has declined whilst digital numbers continue to climb. This is mostly due to television and the internet being able to offer immediate information to viewers and breaking news stories, in a more visually stimulating way with sound, moving images and video. Newspapers are confined to paper and ink and are not considered as ‘alive’ as these other mediums.