journalism and Spanish-American War (Essay Sample)

Name Instructor's name Course Title Date Journalism and the Spanish-American War The Spanish American War is perhaps branded to be both a hull mark in the history of propaganda and the commencement in the practice of the yellow journalism. Ironically, it was the first conflict in which military action was hastened by media houses. The war has been sometimes branded the "Newspaper War" mainly because the influence of a melodramatic press-"the yellow journalism”-supposedly brought the conflict (Campbell 126). Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst were two rivals in the newspaper industry. Hearts and Pulitzer devoted most of their time trying to capture a larger market in New York by outsmarting the other by printing stimulating stories that attested to be false. Their stories created a belief in the American public that the Cubans were oppressed in the hands of the Spanish, and the only way to gain freedom was through America's involvement. Yellow journalism by Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst mainly assisted to influence the way the American reacted to the actions that sparked the Spanish-American war of 1898. (Campbell 126). The yellow journalist published atrocities that they claimed were committed by the Spanish against the Cubans. Perhaps the biggest turnaround w...