NDA (II) 2016 General Ability Test · Question 15 of 150

Correct — C, 'sensational reporting'. Yellow journalism is the trade in eye-catching headlines and exaggerated stories written to sell copies rather than to inform — crime, scandal and sensation played up for effect. 'Sensational reporting' names that practice directly.

• (a)misrepresentation — Something yellow journalism often does, but it is the wider fault of getting the facts wrong, which can spoil the dullest report as easily as the loudest one.
• (b)vulgarization — Means coarsening or dumbing down, and it misses the defining point that sensation is being used to sell copies.
• (d)loud gestures — Describes a speaker's manner rather than a style of newspaper writing.

Yellow journalism is sensationalised reporting — eye-catching headlines and exaggeration used to boost a newspaper's circulation.

The phrase is an idiom rather than a description, so the colour has to be learnt and cannot be reasoned out. It grew out of the fight for readers between two New York City newspapers in the 1890s, and the name is tied to the 'Yellow Kid' comic strip that ran first in Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and then in William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal. Where two options are both partly true, as 'misrepresentation' and 'sensational reporting' are here, the one that names the defining practice wins.

• Yellow journalism means the use of eye-catching headlines and sensationalised exaggeration to increase sales.
• The term emerged from the battle for readers between two New York City newspapers in the 1890s.
• The 'Yellow Kid' comic strip, drawn by Richard F. Outcault, ran from 1895 in Pulitzer's New York World and later in Hearst's New York Journal.
• British English more often calls much the same thing tabloid journalism.

• Reading 'yellow' as cowardice, which is a different idiom altogether.
• Choosing 'misrepresentation' because sensational papers are often inaccurate as well.

Asked as a synonym item — pick the words most similar in meaning to the underlined expression.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The expression 'red tape' means

  • (a)a warning signal
  • (b)excessive official routine
  • (c)a festive decoration
  • (d)a printing error

  Answer(b) excessive official routine — the phrase names bureaucratic delay and formality.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which phrase names writing that plays up scandal in order to sell copies?

  • (a)investigative journalism
  • (b)yellow journalism
  • (c)citizen journalism
  • (d)embedded journalism

  Answer(b) yellow journalism — sensation used to boost circulation.