Sensation and sensationalism

Journalism in Bourgeois Society

Disinformation and deception techniques

Techniques and methods for interpreting information and bourgeois propaganda

V. E. Anikeev, E. Ch. Andrunas, L. V. Sharonchikova

The sensation is by no means an invention of the modern press; moreover, it appeared in printed form much earlier than newspapers were born. So, when there was still a century and a half left before the publication of the first newspaper in France, where the newspaper business has a very rich history, separate sheets were already being sold in the country, on which news about the most significant events were printed.

The first such leaflet, noted by historians, appeared in 1488. It outlined the circumstances of the capture of Mr. Fougeres by French troops, which meant the end of the independence of the Breton kingdoms. Judging by the nature of the execution, these leaflets were intended for a relatively general public.

The illustrations accompanying the text were more often than not too far from being able to directly comment on it. The main advantage of the leaflets was that they were ahead of oral information.

The publication of such leaflets continued until the beginning of the 16th century with a predominant emphasis on novelty and with a gradual expansion of topics from military news to catastrophic natural phenomena (earthquakes, floods, drought, etc.).

Leaflets describing fantastic phenomena, as well as rumors about monstrous animals, birds, snakes, etc., became more and more widespread. By the beginning of the 18th century, this news was divided into two types: brochures of 12-16 pages and separate sheets, still printed on one side of the paper. The former subsequently turn into newspapers, while the latter, retaining their former form, specialize in reports of a sensational nature. However, newspapers soon notice that they have lost something attractive to readers to the sheets, and already “La Gazette” Renaudot begins to issue special issues with increased circulation, which were called “extraordinary”. And at the beginning of the XIX century, they get the name "ducks". This word in French has long had the meaning of a ridiculous story, which is designed for gullible listeners in order to make fun of them. Characteristic is its definition, referring to the second half of the 19th century, given by Larousse: “The word “duck” was assigned exclusively to news that was born in the imagination of scribbled journalists, as if trying to limit how far the reader’s trust extends.”

"Ducks" began to be called both individual sheets and some parts in newspapers, as well as entire newspapers that specialized in materials of a similar nature. "Duck" could be news sometimes true, but always exaggerated, most often completely false.

However, even today, for many readers and even journalists, the closest synonym for sensation is the newspaper "duck", because the modern bourgeois press has adopted, first of all, its qualities such as loudness and deceit. This, apparently, also explains the general negative-ironic tone of numerous statements and remarks addressed to the sensation. 

What is a sensation and what can be seen as its rational grain? According to the dispassionate definition of specialists, a sensation is an event that causes excitement, wide interest, and also the impression made by this event. Therefore, a message about such an event will be sensational in the journalistic sense of the word.

The question is what event should be considered of wide interest, capable of causing excitement, and, finally, what should be the form of this message so that the impression of the event corresponds to its actual meaning.

Based on the above definition, it is legitimate to single out the type of sensation that can be called pleasant. It will be an objective report of an event that really has a wide interest and makes an impression corresponding to its true content. Many achievements in space exploration have undoubtedly been and are sensational. Reports about them were sensational in the most positive sense. Enthusiastic tones and superlatives were appropriate here, large headlines and large photographs were justified, for the grandeur of the events was undeniable. And although Soviet journalists do not willingly resort to this word when talking about their work, nevertheless, these were real sensations in our press.

However, not so significant events cause sensations. For example, five twins are born in a family at once, an athlete sets a phenomenal world record, a species of fish hitherto unknown to science is discovered in the ocean - all these reports taken from newspapers are not so large in scale, the circle of people on whom they produce is not very wide. a strong impression, and yet it is a sensation. They are united by one feature - exclusivity, the uniqueness of what is described. It is these events that make up most of the sensational materials in the press, because events of a global scale are much rarer. In addition, a kind of devaluation of the sensation is taking place: what yesterday still aroused exceptional interest, around which passions were seething, today surprises few. A sensation should be relevant, modern, sometimes strive to overtake the time.

The weekly "Abroad" once placed photographs of the first English newspapers with yard-long headlines: "The pound sterling is going to hell!," The pound sterling falls to a record low! “Such newspaper headlines,” the magazine comments, “have long ceased to be a sensation for the British.” Indeed, today you need to thoroughly delve into the events of the day in order to present something extremely interesting to the reader.

In their daily search for sensationalism, bourgeois journalists most often replace significant, topical events with piquant, scandalous stories, usually associated with murders, thefts, financial fraud, and other attributes of capitalist civilization. This is how a type of sensation is born in the bourgeois press, calculated on an unhealthy interest, on idle curiosity; the excitement caused by them is based not on the comprehension of the facts, but on the emotional perception. In order to give an ordinary, insignificant event a sensational character, the bourgeois press inflates its scale, artificially dramatizes what happened, and distorts its true meaning. Sensation, thus, turns into sensationalism - a characteristic feature inherent in bourgeois journalism.  

The most common form of such a sensation is a flashy headline on the front page of a newspaper or on the cover of a magazine, occupying almost their entire area. It is, both in style and in appearance, the "ordinary dish" of the mass bourgeois press. Here are some examples from American newspapers; "Gambling Den Exposed" (Buffalo Evening News, September 25, 1976), "25 Dead in Bronx Fire" (St. Petersburg Times, October 25, 1976), "Downtown Police Accused of Corruption" ( Boston Globe, Nov. 9, 1976), "Murder Charge Dropped" (Chicago Daily News, Nov. 12, 1976), "Gilmour Is Dead" - Material on the Execution of a Criminal (New York Post, Jan. 17 1977).

These headlines, taken from various newspapers, do not differ in the variety of subjects that is generally characteristic of sensational materials in any mass bourgeois publication. The work devoted to the most popular bourgeois magazine Readers Digest highlights "the traditional topics of articles that are preceded by sensational headlines - gender relations, natural phenomena, natural disasters, health, violence, business": "How to live with a woman", "Death comes on two copes”, “What Really Killed Marilyn Monroe”, “All About Love”, “Twenty Minutes of Horror”, “Want to Make a Million Dollars?” etc.

 The list of similar examples can be continued, taking them from such newspapers as the English Daily Mirror, the West German Bildzeipnr, the French France-Soir, and the like, but the thematic range of sensations will not expand in any significant way. It should also be noted that more often than not, the material itself located inside the issue does not correspond to the sensational character of the headline, the sensation seems to “fizzle out”, because in reality we are talking about an ordinary fact from everyday capitalist reality.

In bourgeois propaganda, the practice is also widespread when, in the style and manner of traditional sensations, materials are presented about events that are quite serious, important, requiring a detailed presentation, analysis, commentary. The example may be conditional, but typical. A coup d'etat took place in one of the eastern countries. The bourgeois press did not mention this country for months, some readers had not heard anything about it before. And suddenly a sensation! Under large headlines, with illustrations, the details of the coup are reported: how many were killed and wounded, who was arrested, who was involved in the conspiracy, etc.

A wave of reports about this "shock event" without any internal connection, without an analysis of the causes, with a light commentary on the differences between the overthrown and the new regime - and after a day or two silence again, the country ceases to exist for the press, and the reader remains in ignorance of what this country was like before the revolution, what were the causes and nature of it, what significance it might have for the rest of the world. And here is a real example - the coverage by the American press of the presidential election campaign on the anniversary of the country's 200th anniversary.

This objectively serious political event took place to the sound of newspaper pipes, rattles, and drums, in tinsel of insignificant details, which, however, corresponded to the nature of the very procedure for nominating candidates and electing the President of the United States. Such materials to a certain extent depoliticized the event itself.  The damage to the reader is double. On the one hand, he was not given a general picture, he was distracted from important, contemporary events, since bourgeois propaganda seeks to keep them silent, based on its class interests, on the other hand, a correct idea about the events that were discussed, because the sensational message character relies on emotional perception, refers not to the mind of the reader, but to the "twilight sides" of his personality. 

Sensations in the world of capital are carried away not by individual scribblers or some newspapers, but by all institutions on which the content of the information sections of the vast majority of propaganda organs depends, including the world's largest bourgeois news agencies.

The Belgian researcher of the bourgeois press R. Kloss, speaking of two needs that the mass information is called upon to satisfy, pointed out that one of them is the "disinterested psychosocial need" for sensational news.

Even if we assume that the press of the capitalist countries day by day “disinterestedly” stuffs the public with sensations in order to satisfy this need, the pernicious, stupefying, disorienting role of sensation is still evident by virtue of the form that it has acquired on the pages of bourgeois newspapers and magazines.

Its bias is obvious. After all, to present any fact as a sensation means to distinguish it from a number of others, to recognize a certain significance for it, to attract special attention from the audience. Designed to lure the reader, to excite, dazzle and stun, the sensation may in some ways be comparable to advertising. Only it does not advertise goods and services, but facts, events, personalities, and sometimes the newspaper itself, its efficiency, resourcefulness, awareness, exclusivity. However, it is not only a matter of material gain. Sensationalism - one of the means to achieve political goals.

The choice of this or that event as the next sensation is politics. For example, if a communist is elected mayor of a large city in a capitalist country and on the same day the football team of this city defeats the national champion, then there is no doubt that the bourgeois newspaper will report the first event in a neutral tone, and the second as the sensation of the year. .

 

A large place in the pages of the bourgeois press is occupied by various types of anti-Soviet and anti-communist materials. Full of fabrications about the Soviet Union and the countries of the socialist community, they are often presented as a sensation. Many examples of this can be cited from any, not only mass, but also high-quality newspaper that claims to be serious and objective. Here is one example of such a publication in the French Le Figaro, which boasts of its solidity. 

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Suffice it to recall how for many years sensational reports about “flying saucers” as possible “Russian military targets” were used to inflate the myth of the “Soviet threat”, all sorts of unidentified marine objects were sensationally announced by Soviet submarines, on which round-ups were organized, quite in the spirit of the “ducks” of the 15th century. the modern bourgeois press fanned the sensation about a prehistoric monster supposedly living in the Scottish Loch Ness.  And even if we take into account that, from a scientific point of view, the question of its existence has not been finally resolved, it should still be noted that the next portion of "evidence" to support this hype appeared just during the periods of miners' strikes, rising inflation, housing crisis, in order to distract the reader from the serious life fragments that he faces daily in a capitalist society.

To stupefy the masses, the bourgeois press does not disdain any means. That is why its sensationalism is one of the most popular techniques.