California was furthest west and therefore was the central part of this new frontier. It was seen as the most American. The Gold Rush was the beginning of George Hearst's success. He was a typical American Dream case, coming from nothing to being the ultimate businessman through simple hard work.
Hearst went into 'penny papers' which were ultimately working class newspapers, seemingly because they were aimed at the largest audience, suited to the area at the time. These apapers were purely propaganda.
When William Hearst was in his depth of 'penny papers', he used the front page as a selling tool. He saw it as his shop window and used it to show off his best of what was contained in the rest of the paper. His major attractions were illustrations and pictures. According to the expert himself, "they attract the eye and stimulate the imagination of the lower classes materially". Having an international audience, this visual medium of communication was necessary.
Hearst's 'Examiner' was pro labour, anti capital and anti railroad. It was noted for supporting unions and occasional racism.
It was at this point that Hearst moved to New York and the battle of the 'Yellow Kid' commenced between himself and Pulitzer. Eventually Hearst ended up with the original artists but both had these cartoons in their papers and the papers became known as the 'yellow papers'. The 'Yellow Kid' was perfect for the audience because he was 'normal' to the working class audience.
Yellow papers are now known in the UK as red tops; such newspapers as the Mirror, Star and Sun.
Hearst was an investigative journalist (muckracker) and he knew the best selling story at the time was war.
Yellow journalism was all about picture domination, big headlines, catchy headlines, self promotion and conversational style writing.
