In Search Of Sensationalism

"In American Journalism a new style emphasizing the unique and the sensational had been set by the Hungarian immigrant Joseph Pulitzer, who took over the 'New York World' in 1883. "There is room in this great and growing city," Pulitzer announced to his readers, "For a journal that is not only cheap but bright, not only bright but large, not only large but democratic - dedicated to the cause of the people rather than to that of the purse potentates - devoted more to the news of the New than the Old World - that will expose all fraud and sham, fight all public evils and abuses - that will battle for the people with earnest sincerity." 'Pulitzer's World,' commonly considered the nation's first modern mass-circulation daily, sold for two-cents a copy and in fifteen years increased its circulation from 15,000 to 1.5 million. Sensationalism meant a new prominence and vividness for crime, disaster, sex, scandal, and monstrosities." - D.J. Boorstin