Yellow Journalism In American War

In the mid-1800s, Spain ruled the island of Cuba. the United States, at that time, received most of Cuba's exports, and they supported the Cuban independence movement; if Cuba was independent, then the United States would benefit from the country. Soon, the big U.S. presses, such as The New York Journal and The New York World, knew that the event was in the people's feelings. They sensationalized their headlines and graphic features to attract readers, which soon was known as "yellow journalism". The press also knew a lot of the reader's interests, and they exaggerated their news. During the January of 1898, the United States sent the USS Maine, which is a battleship, to Havana, which is the capital of Cuba, in order to halt the riots between

Assess the importance of TWO of the following in the US decision to declare war against Spain in 1898: yellow journalism, sinking of the Maine, US business interests, Cuban revolution

There were a plethora of important events that took place that prompted the beginning of The Spanish American war. The war was officially started in 1898, bringing joy to the citizens of America and dismay to then president William Mckinley. Before the war, Cuba had been fighting for independence from Spain. The Cuban’s had already lost in the ten year war earlier, which had been fought to gain their independence from Spain. In the state's, newspapers and other media sources were greatly exaggerating the horrors and atrocities being

The Spanish-American War was a war focused on control over Cuba. As previously stated, Spain touted a powerful navy, victory would cause the entire world to notice and give the United States a seat at the international table. Americans took notice of Spanish brutality to Cuban uprisings attempting to gain freedom and were sympathetic to the Cuban people. Fighting for our independence was fresh on the minds of Americans who began to support Cuban freedom from Spain. Dispatching the USS Maine off the coast of Cuba proved to be a fateful strategic move made by President McKinley because just days after on February 15th 1898 the ship was destroyed, killing over 250 sailors. Although believed to be an accident, yellow journalists ran with the story of war receiving overwhelming support from the public. War was declared in April of 1898 and just after

Even today Historians are pointing to “Yellow Journalism” as the start of the Spanish American War although there were other factors that led to the war being initiated. Cuba may have never intervened had it not been for the influence of “Yellow Journalist” and the exaggerated headlines being written by them. (http://www.pbs.org/crucible/frames/_journalism.html , n.d.)

The major underlying reasons behind the Spanish-American War were simply extensions of the jingoism and slandering journalism trends in the U.S. during the late 19th century. Although the Spanish

Yellow journalism talked about Cuba, Guam, Puerto Rico, Philippines,etc. This gave motivation for Americans to go to war because they were being fed lies. Accusations of what happened in previous situations, led Americans to want to drive out the Spanish from Cuba, because they wanted to take over Hawaii and the Philippines. America soon ended up going to war with the Philippines and the Caribbeans, before signing the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Spanish-American War. Later on the Americans had an empire that included Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines (Ch 18. section

Yellow Journalism follows this because that is what William Randolph Hurst and Pulitzer were using to persuade the audience, the idea of overdoing a story so it will make the public feel a certain way and in this case it made the public want to help Cuba.

Yellow Journalism is a type of publishment in the newspaper that seems to be nothing more than a huge exaggeration to grab the reader's attention. An article like this is meant to catch the eyes of a customer and increase newspaper sales. The document I reviewed was an article in a newspaper from late in the 1800’s. The newspaper headline is titled, “Maine Explosion caused by Bomb or Torpedo?” There were many debates about who blew up the Battleship of Maine and how it happened.

The first cause of the Spanish American War was the yellow journalism. The yellow journalism was written to enrage readers about Valeriano Weyler’s brutality. Some of the things that was said was the children were thrown to the sharks. This caused America’s sympathy for Cuba to grow larger.

Nationalism was another major factor in declaring war against Spain. Nationalism emerged in the United States and all of its people seemed to support the war. The “yellow press” printed multiple stories of scandals, including the explosion of the Maine in the Havana harbor. The yellow press printed that the Spanish were responsible for this action, which led to the slogan “Remember the Maine.” Nationalism and pride surged within the United States and war became imminent. The “rough riders,” who were volunteers from the United States, invaded the Santiago harbor in order to drive out Spanish ships. They paved the way for the American army and forced Spain to sign an armistice. After the war was over and the Cubans were free, The Platt Amendment was passed. It provided that Cuba had to state in its own constitution that the US might intervene with troops in Cuba in order to restore order and to provide mutual protection. It also promised to sell or lease naval stations to the US. The doctrine of Manifest Destiny also played a major part in the war. The US wanted to expand its country and spread its Anglo-Saxon culture. Imperialism was also part of this objective.

While public tensions before August 1898 were surely high, nothing turned the public against Spain like the tragic blowing up of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor. The lives of 260 American officers and men were lost. The yellow press and American investigators quickly blamed spanish officials in Cuba for the mysterious wreck. Although it is extremely unlikely that the spanish had anything to do with the Maine’s sinking, the War-Mad American public accepted this conclusion out of rage, overwhelmingly persuading President Mckinley to begin the war. McKinley personally did not want to fight a war against Spain, for he had seen enough bloodshed as a General in the Civil War. But the public, encouraged by the Cuban patriotic cause, yellow journalism, and the sinking of the Maine, clamored for a war. Finally, President McKinley yielded and gave the people what they wanted. He believed that the people should rule, even if they don’t know what’s best for themselves. Public pressure was the main reason we went to war with Spain, and the biggest cultivator of public unrest was the blowing up of “The Maine”.

Yellow Journalism was seen all over the newspapers in the late 19th century and was one of the causes of why McKinley chose to go to war. The San Francisco Call was one of those newspaper spreading rumors and false claims to the people. They mislead many people to support the cause in Cuba, adding to McKinley’s pressure of whether to get involved or not. They printed an article entitled “Proof of the treachery of Gen. Weyler” on April 12th, 1898. This newspaper article claimed that the sinking of the Maine, which caused great controversy over the situation in Cuba, was the work of none other than General Weyler, American’s biggest enemy at the moment. As it was clear, probably at that time and definitely now, the Maine wasn’t destroyed by the Spanish. Like this example and many others, tension rose both in the White House and with the American people because they were fed lies that people wanted to believe. Kagan believes that this “yellow journalism” didn’t really affect McKinley’s decision to intervene in Cuba as he states, “The pressure on the McKinley administration to take some action in Cuba was not manufactured by publishers looking for a war to sell newspapers. It was the product of Cuban reality and American outrage over actual human suffering.” Although he is right

Radio was a very important transmission mode. The radio’s main function was to deliver citizens the necessary information in a way that was easy to understand, while at the same time making sure the news agencies earned sufficient ratings and to profit. The radio companies had to make the radio programming easy to understand to the average citizen, because “[t]he education of many Americans had ended after freshman year in high school. (Horten, p.

Around the late 1800s, Spain was having a hard time with preventing Cuban’s from fighting for their independence. The revolts led Spain to send over General Valeriano Weyler, to put a stop to the protests. Consequently, he had anyone suspected of supporting independence, removed from the general population, and sent to concentration camps. Newspaper publishers, William R. Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, gave the word out to the American people, with the use of a little Yellow journalism--journalism based upon sensationalism and crude exaggeration, in an attempt to create disgust towards the Spanish government's actions. The American people, with their moral beliefs, and pride in their military might, decided to put into action the long-dormant