I am a student completing a dissertation on sensationalism in the
media. I would like to have any suggestion of reference books on how,
where and when media woke up to the interest of sensationalism. What's
the background of the practice of sensationalism in the media in
Europe and in America?

---

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 02 Nov 2005 08:48 PST

This book could serve as an essential primary resource, if for no
other reason that its cover:


http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=1402728239&cds2Pid=210&linkid=529945
Bat Boy Lives!


Is this the sort of thing you're after, or did you have something a
bit more academic in mind?


pafalafa-ga

---

Clarification of Question by the_londoner-ga on 02 Nov 2005 09:42 PST

Thanks to everyone who is about to help. jambow-ga
says:"sensationalism is a rhetorical device and so has only been
around as long as people have invoked it. so about as long as
journalism". Can I have a sort of time-line, if only basic, of how
long this "rhetorical device" has been around in journalism? Is there
any pioneer in sensational journalism? For example in colonial
America, or in the Enlightenment Europe?

check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensationalism.

sensationalism is a rhetorical device and so has only been around as
long as people have invoked it. so about as long as journalism.

the meaning of the word is known to all. it's context could range from
"media hype" to "sensational propaganda" to "sexing-up".

I think you'll find that "sensationalism" in media pre-dates modern
man, when the first ancient citizens embellished or even exaggerated
their conquests on cave walls. In a more recent historical example
however you might focus on people like P.T Barnum as a starting point.

tutuzdad-ga

Research books written by political players involved in dealing with
Sen. Joe McCarthy. At some point all of them reflect on how the media
was just as willing to build him up as to later tear him down. Pro or
con on McCarthy, all became disillusioned with media coverage.

"Thanks to everyone who is about to help. jambow-ga
says:"sensationalism is a rhetorical device and so has only been
around as long as people have invoked it. so about as long as
journalism". Can I have a sort of time-line, if only basic, of how
long this "rhetorical device" has been around in journalism? Is there
any pioneer in sensational journalism? For example in colonial
America, or in the Enlightenment Europe?"

Two pamphleteers of the Colonial era, James Thomas Callender and
William Cobbett were most prominent. Both were from England where they
had run afoul of sedition laws. Cobbett was pro-Federalist and
Callender pro-Democrat. Cobbett ran his own print shop, taking
payments from Hamilton and Burr. Callender wrote under the name Peter
Porcupine, taking payments from Jefferson and Madison to write poison
pen polemics. Cobbett felt the heat and left America to return to
England. Callender became unhappy with nonpayment for services
rendered and began to turn on Jefferson in anonymous letters about
Sally Hemings. He was found drown in the James River. Read Wm.
Safire's novel "Scandalmonger" as a very good representation of how it
all worked in the early colonial era.