Sensationalistic stories have attracted readers for as long as reading has been a popular form of entertainment. Readers have been frightened and revolted, yet at the same time fascinated, by stories of crime, assault, death, thievery, kidnapping, murder, rape, scandal, love triangles, and their associated miscreants. Starting in the 1830s this morbid interest in lurid stories fueled the unprecedented growth of sensationalist newspapers that titillated and shocked their many readers.

This study of sensationalism describes how newspapers added lurid details of crime, murder, scandal, gossip, and gruesome accidents to their coverage of news events in an effort to attract as many readers as they could. This type of sensationalism in journalism was characterized by hyperbole and exaggerated details. It was purposely meant to grab the attention of the reader and keep him or her reading. For the next hundred years this sensationalized journalism continued, later spilling over into radio and television news. Along the way, the "yellow journalism" wars of the newspapers of the 1880s and 1890s produced bold headlines, sensationalized illustrations, exaggeration of news events, and a scandalous slant to reporting that included false quotes and misleading information. Sensational reporting continued with muckraking reporting in the early 1900s as journalistic crusaders worked to expose municipal corruption, corporate greed, and misconduct in American business.