A result of the exaggerated stories published by newspapers in the late 1800s was that:

A result of the exaggerated stories published by newspapers in the late 1800s was that:

A. newspapers had a strong influence on American politics.

B. newspapers began to lose money.

C. newspapers lost political power.

D. newspapers had little influence on American politics.

Answer: A. newspapers had a strong influence on American politics.

At the end of the 1800s towards the turn of the century, a new kind of journalism known as yellow journalism drawn from yellow papers made its way into the market. Although this type of reporting has been condemned for diminishing journalism professionalism, this style contributed to newspapers exercising vast control over the political domain of America. The stories told to the readers were most of the time hyped or even outrightly fabricated, but they served to inform the public and perhaps even determine their perception of some political matters.

For instance, during the Spanish-American War of 1898 newspapers contributed largely to rallying the public into supporting the war. William Randolph Hearst of the New York Journal and Joseph Pulitzer of the New York World provided the American people with sensationalised reports of the Spanish conduct in Cuba that finally stirred America into a state of war. A phrase attributed by William Randolph Hearst during the invasion of Spain by America HG ‘You provide the pictures, I’ll provide the war’ may have been fabricated, but it gives an estimation of the authority of the press at that given period. Also based on newspaper influence was the revelation of political corruption as a means of checking the excesses of leaders. Some of the influential papers that brought major exposure involved Joseph Pulitzer’s St. Louis Post dispatch which focussed on corrupt politicians and businessmen and prompted cries for change. This paved the way for the Progressive movement in American politics. Progressive journalists like Ida Tarbell and Upton Sinclair went on to establish the muckraking tradition, they wrote popular sensational pieces to look into the social and political issues of the society and thus were influential in framing legislation and policies. Although some of the reports were not always accurate, the age of yellow journalism underlined the ability of mass media to set the pace drive the opinions of people and dictate political events.