Yellow Journalism is taking over.

Yellow journalism uses sensational style to attract readers. Yellow journalism is defined as an exaggerated, exploitative, sensational style of newspaper reporting. It emerged at the end of the nineteenth century when rival newspaper publishers competed for sales in the coverage of events leading up to and during the Spanish-American War in 1898. The rise of yellow journalism helped to create a climate conducive to the outbreak of international conflict and the expansion of U.S. influence overseas during the war. According to the History of American Journalism.

"The yellow journalism of the 1890’s and tabloid journalism of the 1920’s and the 1930’s stigmatized the press as a profit motivated purveyor of cheap thrills and vicarious experiences. To its many critics it seemed as though the press was using the freedom from regulation it enjoyed under the First Amendment to make money instead of using it to fulfill its vital role as an independent source of information in a democracy. The Commission on Freedom of the Press, chaired by Robert M. Hutchins, issued a report in 1947, A Free and Responsible Press (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1947) which urged the press to be “socially responsible."

Terrance McCoy, author of the newsprint on “For the ‘new journalists’ opportunity comes in clicks and bucks”, (November 20, 2016), showcased two individuals working on a pro-Donald Trump website.  She stated that both are 26-year-old college graduates, Paris Wade with an Advertisement degree and Ben Goldman with a Business degree.

Six months ago, Wade and his business partner, Ben Goldman, were unemployed restaurant workers. Now they’re working on a website that gained 300,000 Facebook followers in October alone and says they are making so much money that they feel uncomfortable talking about it because they don’t want people to start asking for loans.

Goldman and Wade often tell each other they aren’t creating anything that’s not already there, that they’re simply fanning it. However, their fake news is now all around the world and is influencing millions.

 Political beliefs are like religious beliefs in the respect that both are part of who an individual is and important for the social circle of which an individual belongs in. Shermer’s theory is backed by hard science. In a study published last year in Nature, it was demonstrated that challenging someone’s political beliefs activates the same areas of the brain involved in personal identity and emotional response to a threat. Readers like to believe what they want to believe, whether it is true or not.