How to Spot Yellow Journalism

Yellow journalism is regarded as the lowest form of journalism. It uses sensationalism, bias and distorted facts to create shock value in the news, usually to attract more readers or viewers. If you prefer not to follow a news outlet that panders to this form, it's not hard to figure out which ones do.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

1. See where the priorities of a news media outlet are. If they run shocking stories, like political scandals, ahead of things like serious world issues, they're putting shock value ahead of serious news to drive up viewers.

2. Follow the political views of a certain media outlet. Quite a few TV stations and newspapers lean to one political side in their stories. The media is always accused of being liberal, but there is more conservative media than you'd think.

3. Compare different papers and stations when they run the same stories. If one presents "facts" that don't follow the others and seem more sensational, that outlet likely distorted the facts for its own agenda. (It could be the only one right, but it's not likely.)

4. Check the opinion pages of the paper. Many newspapers are accused of pushing agendas on these pages. If the opinions are balanced, there's no problem. But if they mostly favor one opinion or political view, they can be accused of bias.

Tips & Warnings

• Read the supermarket tabloids. They are the ultimate examples of yellow journalism. They print the most outlandish, sensationalist headlines on their front covers and then the actual stories inside often aren't as shocking as the headline suggested.