muckraking and yellow journalism

                                                  Muckraking and yellow journalism blog    


While yellow journalism and muckraking are often used interchangeably, there is a difference between the two distinct types of journalism. While muckraking involves investigating powerful people for scandalous information, Yellow Journalism involves utilizing sensationalism and exaggeration over facts to get more readers and influence. 

    The fact that these two journalistic styles are responsible for journalists having more power, and the usual powerful people to have less, powerful people are usually not fans of Muckraking or Yellow Journalism. 

    While at times using sensationalism can be a bad thing, sometimes there are correct reasons. An example of this could be Paul Revere's cartoon of the Boston massacre. 


    While we are aware that this is not an accurate representation of what happened in the Boston Massacre, this type of journalism helped changed public perception about Great Britain in the colonies, something Revere would have done anything for. 
    
    However, most examples of yellow journalism are more in the vein of William Randolph Hearst, who pushed war with Spain because he believed his newspaper would sell more copies. 
     
    Examples of muckraking also fill USA history, and prove how valuable the press is to American politics. If weren't for Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, it is entirely possible that Richard Nixon would have made it through two terms as an extremely popular president, even though he was a crook. 
    One thing I'm not sure of is if you get muckraking without also having yellow journalism. There will always be people who are trying to push their own narrative, even to the detriment of the public, however the trade-off of having a 4th estate is definitely worth it. 


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