Writing A Research Paper About Yellow Journalism: Things To Remember
Yellow journalism is a fascinating topic for a research paper. Yellow journalism is defined as journalism that is based upon sensationalism and crude exaggeration. There are so many different directions that you can go in with it, with topics such as:
- - What role did yellow journalism play in WWII?
- - How has the rise of the internet and 24 hour cable news contributed to yellow journalism in the United States?
- - What standards are used to define what is yellow journalism and what is not?
From these examples you can see that you can apply to concept of yellow journalism to practically any time period, and any context: it can be as simple as asking, “What role did yellow journalism play in _____”.
But there are a few things to keep in mind when writing a research paper about yellow journalism:
- 1. Make sure you can define what yellow journalism is in the context you are examining: This is very important, because if you are going to research a certain phenomenon, you need to be able to define it. But it can be difficult for yellow journalism, because what might qualify as it for one person may not qualify as it for another. For example, take the instance of a natural disaster or terrorist attack: news outlets will want to start reporting as soon as they can, and provide any information they have available to the public as soon as possible, because the public is scared and wants to know what is going on. And if, in the course of doing so, the news outlet reports something that is not correct, is that sensationalism? Or was the information supplied to them by credible sources just incorrect?
- 2. Choose a narrow enough topic: As with any paper, you should pick a topic that is narrow enough for the time and number of pages that you have for the paper. If your research paper is a term paper that you only have a few weeks for, it is better to choose a very narrow topic and do an excellent job researching and analyzing it, then to choose a very broad topic and not be able to go into it much.
- 3. Make sure there are good sources for your topic: You should also make sure that there are good sources and records for any topic that you are considering writing about, before you actually start writing about it.