Yellow journalism political cartoon
The Yellow Kid
American comic strip character
For the con man Joseph "Yellow Kid" Weil, see Joseph Weil.
Comics character
The Yellow Kid (Mickey Dugan) is an American comic-strip character that appeared from 1895 to 1898 in Joseph Pulitzer's New York World, and later William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal. Created and drawn by Richard F. Outcault in the comic strip Hogan's Alley (and later under other names as well), the strip was one of the first Sunday supplement comic strips in an American newspaper, although its graphical layout had already been thoroughly established in political and other, purely-for-entertainment cartoons. Outcault's use of word balloons in The Yellow Kid influenced the basic appearance and use of balloons in subsequent newspaper comic strips and comic books.
The Yellow Kid is also famous for its connection to the coining of the term "yellow journalism". The idea of "yellow journalism" referred to stories that were sensationalized for the sake of selling papers, and was so named after the "Yellow Kid" cartoons. Through his cartoons, Outcault's work aimed his humor and social commentary at Pulitzer's adult readership. The strip has been described as "a turn-of-the-century theater of the city, in which class and racial tensions of the new urban, consumerist environment were acted out by a mischievous group of New York City kids from the wrong side of the tracks".
Character
The Yellow Kid was not an individual but a type. When I used to go about the slums on newspaper assignments I would encounter him often, wandering out of doorways or sitting down on dirty doorsteps. I always loved the Kid. He had a sweet character and a sunny disposition, and was generous to a fault. Malice, envy or selfishness were not traits of his, and he never lost his temper.
— Richard F. Outcault, from a 1902 interview
The Yellow Kid was a bald, snaggle-toothed, b
File:PulitzerHearstWarYellowKids.jpg
Cartoon by Leon Barritt, first published in "Vim", v. 1, no. 2, 29 June 1898. Via Library of Congress website [1]. REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
DIGITAL ID: (original) ppmsc 02832 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsc.02832 (color film copy transparency) cph 3g03800 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3g03800 (b&w film copy neg.) cph 3a34758 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3a34758
CONTROL #: 95508199creator QS:P170,Q23995982
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Copyright expired.
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Cartoons: The era of Yellow Journalism, the fake news of the 19th century
It is perhaps not so surprising to hear that the problem of “fake news” – media outlets adopting sensationalism to the point of fantasy – is nothing new. Although, as Robert Darnton explained in the NYRB recently, the peddling of public lies for political gain (or simply financial profit) can be found in most periods of history dating back to antiquity, it is in the late 19th-century phenomenon of “Yellow Journalism” that it first seems to reach the widespread outcry and fever pitch of scandal familiar today.
Why yellow? The reasons are not totally clear. Some sources point to the yellow ink the publications would sometimes use, though it more likely stems from the popular Yellow Kid cartoon that first ran in Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World, and later William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal, the two newspapers engaged in the circulation war at the heart of the furore.
Yellow journalism fever
Although these days his name is somewhat synonymous with journalism of the highest standards, through association with the Pulitzer Prize established by provisions in his will, Joseph Pulitzer had a very different reputation while alive. After purchasing The New York World in 1884 and rapidly increasing circulation through the publication of sensationalist stories he earned the dubious honour of being the pioneer of tabloid journalism.
He soon had a competitor in the field when his rival William Randolph Hearst acquired the The New York Journal in 1885 (originally begun by Joseph’s brother Albert). The rivalry was fierce, each trying to out do each other with ever more sensational and salacious stories. At a meeting of prominent journalists in 1889, Florida Daily Citizen editor Lorettus Metcalf claimed that due to their competition “the evil grew until publishers all over the country began to think that perhaps at heart the public might really prefer vulgarity”.
The phenomenon can .