Read all about it!!

Yellow journalism, a phrase coined by the New York press after a popular cartoon strip, was used to describe a particular type of journalism which downplays the legitimate news for the more glitzy and sometimes untruthful headlines.

Towards the latter end of the 19th century there was an increase in the number of newspapers circulating around major cities, with New York being the centre of the growth of journalism. Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst were at the heart of the boom and were sworn enemies in the printing world. There was a war of words waging between the two for readership on the streets of New York City. Pulitzer had been in the game longer the Hearst and had already made his fortune by the time Hearst burst on to the scene. Many say Pulitzer earned his fortune by employing the tactic of 'Yellow journalism' in his paper New York World, and Hearst not to be out done also adopted the tactic. But not content at have success alongside Pulitzer, Hearst began to lure Pulitzer's journalists away from The World by offering them unprecedented salaries, which he was able to do due to being the heir of an incredibly rich mine owner.

Both men saw the looming Spanish/American war as a great opportunity to gain the advantage in their own personal circulation war. Patriotism was high and both editors saw this as an opportunity to play on American fears and patriotism, many of the stories that came back from were hyperbolic and sensational.

Much the same happened in England during The Great War. But the man who inspired the British patriotism was Lord Northcliffe (born Alfred Harmsworth). Northcliffe reported on the munitions crisis and caused such a stir that it brought down the war time government of Asquith and the rise of a coalition cabinet. He was offered a post in Lloyd George's war time coalition cabinet; he refused and became the director for propaganda. So influential was Northcliffe on propaganda over the Germans that they thought it necessary to find where he lived and bomb his house in an attempt to assassinate him. They failed.