Examining the Impact of "Yellow Journalism"

[Imparcticle]

Hi
Can someone edit my intro for my history essay? This is a very very very very...very important essay so please be as [productively] critical as possible.

this is the prompt:
"To what extent did "Yellow Journalism" influence the United States decision to declare war on Spain?"
(this question is in reference to the spanish american war)

my intro:

Following the 1870’s the United States shifted from focusing on internal affairs such as Reconstruction to furthering its international presence(SAT US, 1). This was motivated by a few major factors; political, economic, social influences. The United States was a relatively new nation, and so it needed to be noticed as a strong power economically and politically. In addition, the success of the American form of government encouraged sentiments of Anglo-Saxonism to arise in the U.S. In particular, such sentiments led Americans to believe that they (Europeans included) were superior and saw the unfortunate and meager conditions of other non European/American countries as evidence of their “inferiority” (McSherry, 10). These sentiments compounded with the fervent interest in expanding economically and being a strong political power led to the solution of adopting imperialist policies. Imperialism expanded the nation’s economic market, political presence on an international level and allowed Americans to help the “inferior” peoples of the Americas. The political and economic interests to expand were strong enough to lead the U.S. into investing millions in sugar plantations in Cuba (Background, 1 ). During this time Cuba was a territory of Spain. Cuba and Spain were constantly at war with one another for the independence of Cuba. American journalists took this fact and altered much of the truth by adding on several untruthful accounts of many horrors done to the Cubans by the Spanish. Eventually, after the explosion of an American battle ship in a Cuban harbor, the U.S. declared war on Spain.

thanx

 

[honestrosewater]

Welcome back! I can't help with the history part, but I'll go over it tonight and offer what I can in the way of grammar and composition suggestions. Nice start.

 

[loseyourname]

Yes! This is exactly the topic I tell all of these people that need topics to write about. Finally someone is doing it. I love you, Particle. (Don't have the time right now to help you, though.)

 

[Imparcticle]

thanks guys!

I'll post a new intro because I really don't like the one I posted. Notice that the prompt is yellow journalism and I didn't mention it until the last sentence. But, I would like feedback on how to write a good intro. and MLA format.

 

[Imparcticle]

Yes! This is exactly the topic I tell all of these people that need topics to write about. Finally someone is doing it. I love you, Particle. (Don't have the time right now to help you, though.)

You tell people to write about yellow journalism? may I ask why?

 

[selfAdjoint]

The explosion of the USS Maine has never really been solved. Hearst, the living embodyment of yellow journalism (interesting sidebar: look up why it was called that) trumpeted in his newspaper (get name) that Spain had done it and the US must go to war over it. He did his best to lash up public war fervor.

Did this cause the war? By itself probably not. All those factors you mentioned in your introduction weighed in too, plus the ego of Teddy Roosevelt. But yellow journalism certainly was a factor, and moreover it was a well-perceived factor. Almost immediately commentators started discussing the very question you are writing on, any many of them blamed yellow journalism without considering other factors.

 

[marcus]

The absence of WMD has never really been solved. .

manipulation to get into a war with a perceived weak opponent
for sugar plantations read oilfields

 

[loseyourname]

You tell people to write about yellow journalism? may I ask why?

Specifically as it regards entry into the Spanish-American War, partly because of the parallels to today and partly just because I find it to be a fascinating series of events that don't seem to get much attention.