Sensationalism

Also called sensationism, it is associated with Ernst Mach (1838-1916) and various other empiricists of the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries.

Either the theory that only sensations exist in what appears to be the material world, everything else being constructed by the methods of phenomenalism; or the theory that all our knowledge must start with sensations, which are free from interpretation and judgment, and about which there is no room for error, the rest of our knowledge being derived from this by inference or by hypotheses which are confirmed by further sensations.

Source:
P Alexander, Sensationalism and Scientific Explanation (1963)

History

In A History of News, author Mitchell Stephens (professor of journalism and mass communication at New York University)^[2] notes sensationalism can be found in the Ancient Roman Acta Diurna (official notices and announcements which were presented daily on public message boards, the perceived content of which spread with enthusiasm in illiterate societies).^[2] Sensationalism was used in books of the 16th and 17th century, to teach moral lessons. According to Stevens, sensationalism brought the news to a new audience when it became aimed at the lower class, who had less of a need to accurately understand politics and the economy, to occupy them in other matters. Through sensationalism, he claims, the audience was further educated and encouraged to take more interest in the news.^[2] The more modern forms of sensationalism developed in the course of the nineteenth century in parallel with the expansion of print culture in industrialized nations. A genre of British literature, “sensation novels,” became in the 1860s the best example of how the publishing industry could capitalize on a rhetoric made of surprising turns in the narrative to market serialized fiction in the expanded market of the periodical press. The London magazine “Belgravia” edited by the popular author of sensation novels Mary Elizabeth Braddon between 1867 and 1876 offered one of the earliest theories of modernity and its “shock value” mediated by sensationalism. The attention-grasping rhetorical techniques found in sensation fiction were also employed in articles on science, modern technology, finance, and in historical accounts of contemporary events, as discussed by Alberto Gabriele in Reading Popular Culture in Victorian Print.^[7] The collection of essays Sensationalism and the Genealogy of Modernity: a Global Nineteenth Century Perspective edited by Alberto Gabriele is also helpful to track the transhistorical presence of sensationalism in several national contexts in the course of the long nineteenth century. Scholars in the collection engage in an interdisciplinary discussion on popular culture, literature, performance, art history, theory, pre-cinema and early cinema.^[8]

In mass media

One presumed goal of sensational reporting is to increase or sustain viewership or readership, from which media outlets can price their advertising higher to increase their profits based on higher numbers of viewers and/or readers.^[9][10] Sometimes this can lead to a lesser focus on objective journalism in favor of a profit motive,^[11] in which editorial choices are based upon sensational stories and presentations to increase advertising revenue.^[11] Additionally, advertisers tend to have a preference for their products or services to be reported positively in mass media, which can contribute to bias in news reporting in favor of media outlets protecting their profits and revenues, rather than reporting objectively about stated products and services.^[10][12]

However, newspapers have a duty to report and investigate stories related to political corruption. Such investigative journalism is right and proper when it is backed up with documents, interviews with responsible witnesses, and other primary sources. Journalists and editors are often accused of sensationalizing scandals by those whose public image is harmed by the legitimate reporting of the scandal. News organizations are not obliged to (and are often ethically obliged not to) avoid stories that might make local, state and national public figures uncomfortable. Occasionally, news organizations mistakenly relay false information from unreliable anonymous sources, who use mass media as a tool for retaliation, defamation, victim and witness tampering, and monetary or personal gain. Therefore, any story based on sources who may be reasonably assumed to be motivated to act in this way is best interpreted with critical thinking.^{[citation needed]}

In extreme cases, mass media may report only information that makes a “good story” without regard for factual accuracy or social relevance. It has been argued that the distrust in government that arose in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal created a new business tactic for the media and resulted in the spread of negative, dishonest and misleading news coverage of American politics;^[11][13] such examples include the labeling of a large number of political scandals, regardless of their importance, with the suffix “-gate”.^[13] Such stories are often perceived (rightly or wrongly) as politically partisan or biased towards or against a group or individual because of the sensational nature in which they are reported. A media piece may report on a political figure in a biased way or present one side of an issue while deriding another. It may include sensational aspects such as zealots, doomsayers and/or junk science. Complex subjects and affairs are often subject to sensationalism. Exciting and emotionally charged aspects can be drawn out without providing the elements needed (such as pertinent background, investigative, or contextual information) for the audience to form its own opinions on the subject.^{[citation needed]}

In broadcasting

Sensationalism is often blamed for the infotainment style of many news programs on radio and television.^[2] According to sociologist John Thompson, the debate of sensationalism used in the mass medium of broadcasting is based on a misunderstanding of its audience, especially the television audience. Thompson explains that the term ‘mass’ (which is connected to broadcasting) suggests a ‘vast audience of many thousands, even millions of passive individuals’.^[3] Television news is restricted to showing the scenes of crimes rather than the crime itself because of the unpredictability of events, whereas newspaper writers can always recall what they did not witness.^[2] Television news writers have room for fewer words than their newspaper counterparts. Their stories are measured in seconds, not column inches, and thus (even with footage) television stories are inherently shallower than most newspaper stories, using shorter words and familiar idioms to express ideas which a newspaper writer is more free to expand upon and define with precision.^{[citation needed]}

Online

The digital revolution has completely changed the way people both produce and consume news content. From a production standpoint, news outlets are now at a much higher risk of releasing content that is false because of how quickly news is circulated through the internet in order to capitalize on those views and clicks for profit.^[14] From a consumption standpoint, this means fewer people reading physical copies of newspapers and this is reflective in the way headlines are created for print media. The introduction of the term “clickbait” into the forefront of the global lexicon has had implications in many major world events, specifically the election of Donald J. Trump to the presidency of the United States. His coining of the term “Fake News” was able to capitalize on many people’s mistrust in the sensational headlines which are often required to make a profit in online news production and the 24 hour news cycle. Another reason for the concern over internet sensationalism is the way certain algorithms can create ‘news loops’ that show people the exact same thing over and over again. Many characters on the internet have been able to profit off of these tactics by instilling fear through completely ridiculous and unverified sources which are able to self permeate online through these algorithms.^[15] While these algorithms are meant to prioritize more trustworthy sources, this doesn’t always happen since they rely on keywords and phrases.^[15] As politics have become more polarized, these tactics have become increasingly prominent as news outlets realize how easy it is to push their own agendas on the internet in this fashion. Many countries have implemented response efforts to this issue, as distrust in the media has become a global concern alongside the rapidly changing format of news media