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Yellow Journalism: Puncturing the Myths, Defining the Legacies
This offers a detailed and long-awaited reassessment of one of the most maligned periods in American journalism―the era of the yellow press. The study challenges and dismantles several prominent myths about the genre, finding that the yellow press did not foment―could not have fomented―the Spanish-American War in 1898, contrary to the arguments of many media historians. The study presents extensive evidence showing that the famous exchange of telegrams between the artist Frederic Remington and newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst―in which Hearst is said to have vowed to furnish the war with Spain―almost certainly never took place. The study also presents the results of a systematic content analysis of seven leading U. S. newspapers at 10 year intervals throughout the 20th century and finds that some distinguishing features of the yellow press live on in American journalism.
The yellow press period in American journalism history has produced many powerful and enduring myths-almost none of them true. This study explores these legends, presenting extensive evidence
• The yellow press did not foment-could not have fomented-the Spanish-American War in 1898, contrary of the arguments of many media historians
• The famous exchange of telegrams between the artist Frederic Remington and newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst-in which Hearst is said to have vowed to furnish the war with Spain-almost certainly never took place
• The readership of the yellow press was not confined to immigrants and people having an uncertain command of English, as many media historians maintain
The study also presents the results of a detailed content analysis of seven leading U.S. newspapers at 10-year intervals, from 1899 to 1999. The content analysis―which included the Denver Post, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Raleigh News and Observer, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, San Francisco Examine and Washington Post ―reveal that some elements characteristic of yellow journalism have been generally adopted by leading U. S. newspapers. This critical assessment encourages a more precise understanding of the history of yellow journalism, appealing to scholars of American journalism, journalism history, and practicing journalists.
The yellow press period in American journalism history has produced many powerful and enduring myths-almost none of them true. This study explores these legends, presenting extensive evidence
• The yellow press did not foment-could not have fomented-the Spanish-American War in 1898, contrary of the arguments of many media historians
• The famous exchange of telegrams between the artist Frederic Remington and newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst-in which Hearst is said to have vowed to furnish the war with Spain-almost certainly never took place
• The readership of the yellow press was not confined to immigrants and people having an uncertain command of English, as many media historians maintain
The study also presents the results of a detailed content analysis of seven leading U.S. newspapers at 10-year intervals, from 1899 to 1999. The content analysis―which included the Denver Post, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Raleigh News and Observer, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, San Francisco Examine and Washington Post ―reveal that some elements characteristic of yellow journalism have been generally adopted by leading U. S. newspapers. This critical assessment encourages a more precise understanding of the history of yellow journalism, appealing to scholars of American journalism, journalism history, and practicing journalists.
- GenresHistoryJournalism
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 30, 2001
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About the author
W. Joseph Campbell
12 books5 followersW. Joseph Campbell is an American writer, historian, media critic, and blogger who is the author of six other books, including the award-winning Getting It Wrong: Debunking the Greatest Myths in American Journalism.
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October 13, 2010
I wrote this review for a History course that I took.
Book Review: Yellow Journalism: Puncturing the Myths, Defining the Legacies, by W. Joseph Campbell
Journalism has, in no small way, influenced the hearts and minds of many people throughout history. Sensationalism in newsprint and on television is often blamed for the actions of, not only individuals, but entire nations and governments. At the turn of the 20th century journalism experienced an evolution, or better, a change. This change, first called “New Journalism,” came to be called, “Yellow journalism,” and the effects or legacies of this type of journalism can still be seen today. In W. Joseph Campbell’s book, Yellow Journalism, Puncturing the Myths, Defining the Legacies, he outlines and contests some of the widely accepted myths surrounding yellow journalism and runs through the different influences it has on journalism today.
Campbell describes his desire to write a history of Yellow Journalism when, after doing some research, he realized that the coverage on the subject was done “almost entirely through the biographic treatment of its leading practitioners,” and that there had been no “attempt to assess the genre, and its legacies, topically or systematically. After further study he came to the conclusion that there exist many myths that had been perpetuated by media historians and seeks to shed some light on the myths in his book. Campbell’s thesis is clearly presented in his introduction in which he states, “this study argues for and presents a more encompassing set of defining characteristics of yellow journalism, a set of characteristics derived from the close reading of issues of the New York Journal and the New York World during the first half of 1897, when the term began appearing in print in New York City and beyond.” The book pursues a twofold objective, which is clearly illustrated by the subtitle.
In order to argue against the myths Campbell poured over copies of the New York Journal and the New York World, the two “yellow journals.” He also read hundreds of articles printed by other newspapers around the country in order to better understand the opinions of the day. He gives a brief historiography of the subject in his first chapter, citing multiple articles and books that have been written on the subject. The notes at the end of each chapter allow the reader to easily find the vast selection of sources the author uses to make his case.
Part one, divided into four chapters, seeks to puncture the myths that permeate the history surrounding yellow journalism and its major players. The author focuses on the myth of the readership , the myth of the “Remington-Hearst Telegrams,” and finally the myth that the Yellow Press is to blame for the Spanish-American War. He even spends a chapter combating the myth of whom and under what context the term “yellow journalism” was first used. This first chapter serves as an effective reference for the history of yellow journalism. The most important and most famous myth that Campbell contests is the myth involving a series of telegrams sent by William Randolph Hearst to his artist in Cuba, Frederic S. Remington.
The story goes that, Remington, desiring to come home, wrote to Hearst, “Everything is quiet. There is no trouble here. There will be no war. I wish to return.” To which Hearst, supposedly, replied, “Please remain. You furnish the pictures, and I’ll furnish the war.” Media historians, journalists, and conspiracy theorists have cited this exchange since it was first published in 1901 in a book by James Creelman, On the Great Highway. Campbell plainly lists nine reasons that the existence of the correspondence is unlikely if not altogether falsified. The resources used in Campbell’s argument range from letters written by Remington from Cuba showing desire to come home, giving different reasons, but never mentioning the lack of conflict in Cuba, to the fact that Creelman was actually in Europe at the time of the, supposed, telegram and would not have been witness to any telegrams sent between the two. This myth, the author states, is fiercely at odds with the historical record of the conflict in Cuba in which the Spanish had sent 200,000 soldiers to quell the uprising. By convincingly countering this myth the author successfully diminishes the role that the yellow press had on the decision to go to war by the United States. Even after contesting the myth of the telegrams Campbell further counters the war myth by explaining the complexity of the foreign relations at the time and the many different motives the United States had to enter into the war with Spain. He states, “To indict the yellow press for instigating the Spanish-American War is fundamentally to misread the evidence and thus do disservice to the broader understanding of a much-misunderstood conflict.” By blaming, or giving sole credit to, yellow journalism people ignore the great complexities that led to the conflict. Professor John J. Pauly from Saint Louis University, suggested in his review that “the chapter ‘Not Likely Sent: The Remington-Hearst Telegrams’ could be given to students as a model of how to sift and evaluate evidence. Campbell exhaustively footnotes his claims.”
The second part of the book includes two chapters on the legacies of yellow journalism, or “how Yellow Journalism lives on.” Campbell uses content, graphics and illustrations, typography, and other similarities to note the practices that began with yellow journalism and continue today. He then recognizes the disgust that papers today have towards yellow journalism by citing multiple newspaper articles from the late 1990s during the scandal that occurred in the White House with President Bill Clinton and an intern. The headlines read, “Remember Yellow Journalism” in the New York Times and “Yellow Journalism’ Revisited,” in the Hartford Courant in Connecticut. The book ends with the author defending Yellow Journalism. He recognizes the faults and excesses of the genre but states that “yellow journalism merits fuller, more nuanced, and more perceptive recognition – the kind of understanding that goes far beyond the unrevealing caricatures so commonplace at the turn of the twenty-first century.”
W. Joseph Campbell’s book is effectively and efficiently presents a broad overview of the subject of yellow journalism while simultaneously debunking specific myths surrounding the subject. The amount of research and clear presentation of evidence in support of his argument allows the reader to easily understand his arguments and his conclusions. Campbell writes in reference to the telegram myth, “Because the evidence is so persuasive that the purported exchange did not take place, the anecdote deserves relegation to the closet of historical imprecision – at least until proved otherwise. Journalists and historians clearly are ill served by repeating the anecdote, by presenting a fanciful story as factual.” Professor Pauly points out one criticism that warrants inclusion in this review, that Campbell “documents Americans’ criticisms of the yellow press but says to little about what those criticisms have signified.” Nevertheless, the book powerfully debunks myths, defines legacies, and characterizes the genre.
Book Review: Yellow Journalism: Puncturing the Myths, Defining the Legacies, by W. Joseph Campbell
Journalism has, in no small way, influenced the hearts and minds of many people throughout history. Sensationalism in newsprint and on television is often blamed for the actions of, not only individuals, but entire nations and governments. At the turn of the 20th century journalism experienced an evolution, or better, a change. This change, first called “New Journalism,” came to be called, “Yellow journalism,” and the effects or legacies of this type of journalism can still be seen today. In W. Joseph Campbell’s book, Yellow Journalism, Puncturing the Myths, Defining the Legacies, he outlines and contests some of the widely accepted myths surrounding yellow journalism and runs through the different influences it has on journalism today.
Campbell describes his desire to write a history of Yellow Journalism when, after doing some research, he realized that the coverage on the subject was done “almost entirely through the biographic treatment of its leading practitioners,” and that there had been no “attempt to assess the genre, and its legacies, topically or systematically. After further study he came to the conclusion that there exist many myths that had been perpetuated by media historians and seeks to shed some light on the myths in his book. Campbell’s thesis is clearly presented in his introduction in which he states, “this study argues for and presents a more encompassing set of defining characteristics of yellow journalism, a set of characteristics derived from the close reading of issues of the New York Journal and the New York World during the first half of 1897, when the term began appearing in print in New York City and beyond.” The book pursues a twofold objective, which is clearly illustrated by the subtitle.
In order to argue against the myths Campbell poured over copies of the New York Journal and the New York World, the two “yellow journals.” He also read hundreds of articles printed by other newspapers around the country in order to better understand the opinions of the day. He gives a brief historiography of the subject in his first chapter, citing multiple articles and books that have been written on the subject. The notes at the end of each chapter allow the reader to easily find the vast selection of sources the author uses to make his case.
Part one, divided into four chapters, seeks to puncture the myths that permeate the history surrounding yellow journalism and its major players. The author focuses on the myth of the readership , the myth of the “Remington-Hearst Telegrams,” and finally the myth that the Yellow Press is to blame for the Spanish-American War. He even spends a chapter combating the myth of whom and under what context the term “yellow journalism” was first used. This first chapter serves as an effective reference for the history of yellow journalism. The most important and most famous myth that Campbell contests is the myth involving a series of telegrams sent by William Randolph Hearst to his artist in Cuba, Frederic S. Remington.
The story goes that, Remington, desiring to come home, wrote to Hearst, “Everything is quiet. There is no trouble here. There will be no war. I wish to return.” To which Hearst, supposedly, replied, “Please remain. You furnish the pictures, and I’ll furnish the war.” Media historians, journalists, and conspiracy theorists have cited this exchange since it was first published in 1901 in a book by James Creelman, On the Great Highway. Campbell plainly lists nine reasons that the existence of the correspondence is unlikely if not altogether falsified. The resources used in Campbell’s argument range from letters written by Remington from Cuba showing desire to come home, giving different reasons, but never mentioning the lack of conflict in Cuba, to the fact that Creelman was actually in Europe at the time of the, supposed, telegram and would not have been witness to any telegrams sent between the two. This myth, the author states, is fiercely at odds with the historical record of the conflict in Cuba in which the Spanish had sent 200,000 soldiers to quell the uprising. By convincingly countering this myth the author successfully diminishes the role that the yellow press had on the decision to go to war by the United States. Even after contesting the myth of the telegrams Campbell further counters the war myth by explaining the complexity of the foreign relations at the time and the many different motives the United States had to enter into the war with Spain. He states, “To indict the yellow press for instigating the Spanish-American War is fundamentally to misread the evidence and thus do disservice to the broader understanding of a much-misunderstood conflict.” By blaming, or giving sole credit to, yellow journalism people ignore the great complexities that led to the conflict. Professor John J. Pauly from Saint Louis University, suggested in his review that “the chapter ‘Not Likely Sent: The Remington-Hearst Telegrams’ could be given to students as a model of how to sift and evaluate evidence. Campbell exhaustively footnotes his claims.”
The second part of the book includes two chapters on the legacies of yellow journalism, or “how Yellow Journalism lives on.” Campbell uses content, graphics and illustrations, typography, and other similarities to note the practices that began with yellow journalism and continue today. He then recognizes the disgust that papers today have towards yellow journalism by citing multiple newspaper articles from the late 1990s during the scandal that occurred in the White House with President Bill Clinton and an intern. The headlines read, “Remember Yellow Journalism” in the New York Times and “Yellow Journalism’ Revisited,” in the Hartford Courant in Connecticut. The book ends with the author defending Yellow Journalism. He recognizes the faults and excesses of the genre but states that “yellow journalism merits fuller, more nuanced, and more perceptive recognition – the kind of understanding that goes far beyond the unrevealing caricatures so commonplace at the turn of the twenty-first century.”
W. Joseph Campbell’s book is effectively and efficiently presents a broad overview of the subject of yellow journalism while simultaneously debunking specific myths surrounding the subject. The amount of research and clear presentation of evidence in support of his argument allows the reader to easily understand his arguments and his conclusions. Campbell writes in reference to the telegram myth, “Because the evidence is so persuasive that the purported exchange did not take place, the anecdote deserves relegation to the closet of historical imprecision – at least until proved otherwise. Journalists and historians clearly are ill served by repeating the anecdote, by presenting a fanciful story as factual.” Professor Pauly points out one criticism that warrants inclusion in this review, that Campbell “documents Americans’ criticisms of the yellow press but says to little about what those criticisms have signified.” Nevertheless, the book powerfully debunks myths, defines legacies, and characterizes the genre.
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