Sensationalism in a History of News - Essay Example

Even the most notable journalists resort to sensationalism to maximize profits and attract attention.  (Mitchells, 2007)

Sensational news directs an unnecessary amount of scrutiny towards people, they can either be defamatory but certain people use such incidents to order to boost their fame through notoriety. The case of O.J. Simpson epitomizes this aspect and another example of such an incident would be Bill Clinton’s alleged affair with a young white house intern Monica Lewinsky. Both of these cases remained in the limelight of media for a very long time and even though such pieces of news were largely scandals they were exaggerated beyond proportion and now such atrocious incidents have become highly infused in the popular culture of the American society.

These are just a few notable examples but there are other cases as well that were subjected to intense Sensationalization. According to my personal beliefs, there is no way sensationalism can ever be justified because it contradicts the professional code of ethics that every journalist must abide by. The ethical code requires all journalists to refrain from making discriminatory references that might create discord in society, factual reporting, and adopting an objective or unbiased stance when it comes to the reportage of the news. However, despite the breaches of the aforementioned ethical code, sensationalism has become an important part of our society. (Mitchells, 2007)