Memo To: Ms. D. From: Jessica Rawlins Date: April 22, 2014 Re: Technical Definitions and Technical Description ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ The purpose of this memo is to produce you with five sentence­level technical definitions and one 300­word extended definition based on one technical term. In regards to my major in communications, I will be using the following terms for my sentence level definitions: press release, investigative journalism, yellow journalism, public journalism, and objective journalism. ● A press release is a written or recorded statement regarding a specific subject issued to the press and deemed official by its source. ● Investigative journalism is a type of published or broadcasted writing with intent to expose corruption, typically focusing on businesses and governments. ● Yellow journalism is a style of investigative journalism that was popular in the newspapers of the 1890s; this style sensationalized crime stories and used large headlines for high­interest current events. ● Public journalism, also referred to as civic journalism, is a type of writing or broadcasting that serves a purpose broader than delivering the news; this type of broadcasting delivers messages encouraging actions that result in an improved life for humankind. ● Objective journalism is a type of published or broadcasted writing that serves the purpose of retaining a neutral voice regarding a specific subject matter by obtaining opposing opinions and comparing those opinions to factual reports. The extended definition defines yellow journalism: One definition of the word yellow is: the first color between green and orange in the spectrum, a primary subtractive color complementary to blue; colored like ripe lemons or egg yolks. Another definition of the word yellow, and the definition that is more closely aligned with the term “Yellow Journalism” is: cowardly. Journalism is defined as: the activity or profession of writing for newspapers or magazines or of broadcasting news on radio or television. Investigative journalism is a type of published or broadcasted writing with intent to expose corruption, typically focusing on businesses and governments. Yellow journalism is a style of investigative journalism that was popular in the newspapers of the 1890s; this style sensationalized crime stories and used large headlines for high­interest current events. In 1833, the founding of penny press in the United States began the spread of mass media for the working and middle class. The success of penny press papers resulted in a rise of human­interest stories. At first, the penny press papers displayed objective journalism. Objective journalism is a type of published or broadcasted writing that serves the purpose of retaining a neutral voice regarding a specific subject matter by obtaining opposing opinions and comparing those opinions to factual reports. However, the increase of competitive dailies and penny papers triggered the significant period of yellow journalism. Yellow journalism highlighted profitable papers with exciting crime news, human interest stories, and large readable headlines. While yellow journalism continued this dramatized version of the news, the six­cent papers kept to objective journalism, which gave a “just the facts” approach presented as impartisan. This purely informational news model was readapted by the majority of media sources in the early twentieth century thanks to the New York Times. The New York Times kept their standard of impartisan overage but lowered their price to one cent. The spread of delivering the most crucial details first and revealing the minor details thereafter, or the inverted­pyramid style, served as a timely way to produce a story efficiently throughout the 20th century. With this demand for impartisan headlines, the penny press yellow journalism was phased out due to a rise in demand for fact based coverage rather than sensationalized human interest stories.