Meanings
- uncountablejournalismJournalism which is sensationalistic and of questionable accuracy and taste.
Near-synonym: tabloidism
2 more examples
It is the sort of paper which the father of the family is expected to take home with him from his office and read aloud to the chicks before bed-time. It was founded by its proprietor, Mr. Benjamin White, as an antidote to yellow journalism.
1915, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 1, in Psmith, JournalistIn the heyday of yellow journalism, newspapers like Joseph Pulitzer’s World and William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal sent out squads of reporters to hunt down leads and, if evidence failed to materialize, make up stories.
2007 October 24, William Grimes, “Murder by Mail in Gilded Age New York”, in New York Times, retrieved 28 Jul 2008Synonyms: tabloidism
Synonyms & antonyms
nounJournalism which is sensationalistic and of questionable accuracy and taste.
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
From the comic The Yellow Kid, published in tabloid newspapers.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic صَحَافَة الصَّفْرَاء, صَحَافَة الفَاضِحَة
- صَحَافَة الصَّفْرَاءsensationalistic journalism
- صَحَافَة الفَاضِحَةsensationalistic journalism
Chinese Mandarin 黃色新聞 /黄色新闻
- 黃色新聞 /黄色新闻sensationalistic journalism
Finnish keltainen journalismi
- keltainen journalismisensationalistic journalism
French jaunisme
- jaunismesensationalistic journalism
German Boulevardjournalismus
- Boulevardjournalismussensationalistic journalism
Hindi पीली पत्रकारिता
- पीली पत्रकारिता (pīlī patrakāritā)sensationalistic journalism
Indonesian koran kuning
- koran kuningsensationalistic journalism
Korean 황색언론
- 황색언론 (hwangsaegeollon)sensationalistic journalism
Polish yellow journalism
- yellow journalismsensationalistic journalism
Cite this entry
yellow journalism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/yellow%20journalism
“yellow journalism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/yellow%20journalism. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “yellow journalism,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/yellow%20journalism.
Source: yellow journalism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.