Yellow journalism "is a pejorative reference given to various practices or tendencies of news media organizations which, by the standards of journalistic professionalism, are considered to be unprofessional and detrimental to the principles of journalistic integrity as a whole."
In other words: crappy, sensationalizing, tabloid "press." It's stuff that's not worth reading. It's not worth listening to. It's not worth watching. It's poorly written, devoid of content, and completely without merit. Sometimes it's referred to as "infotainment" -- a combination of information and entertainment -- but for my money, there's not enough of either to merit that description.
You can find it everywhere: from tabloid newspapers and their sensationlist headlines to Fox news and Walter Jacobson's hyper-dramatic, over-enunciated drivel. It's an obvious -- yet effective -- technique to sell more papers and gain more viewers. People love the overly dramatic and will flock to it. This translates directly into more money in the pockets of the companies that own the media.
Interestingly, this sort of "journalism" has made its way into personal blogsites. Some bloggers have made their "careers" on the practice of treating the smallest things as big news; creating controversy where there is none; and creating a mob rule atmosphere. By creating a culture of fear, these bloggers have effectively rallied people to their cause -- vague though that cause may be -- and continue to create an "us against them" atmosphere without even clearly defining what the sides are. Because there is no money (none that I can see, anyway) involved, I can only assume that it's a popularity contest, or a cry for help and attention.
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