Perspective of Global Affairs

The media presents global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russo-Ukrainian War aims to shape public sentiment, similar to the yellow press in the 1890s.

COVID-19 

21st Century

"Masks are the single most effective way to protect yourself and others from getting infected with the coronavirus."

~ Dr. Anthony Fauci (What you need to know about face masks as protection against coronavirus - CNN)

VS

"Wearing a mask may make little to no difference in how many people caught a flu-like illness/COVID-like illness" 

~ Cochrane Library (Face masks made ‘little to no difference’ in preventing spread of COVID, scientific review finds - Fox News)

19th Century

"DESTRUCTION OF THE WAR SHIP MAINE WAS THE WORK OF AN ENEMY"

~ New York Journal

Spanish-American War

{President McKinley offering Uncle Sam different "dishes"}

{Uncle Sam versus the Spanish matador}

COVID-19

{Michael Ramirez/Creators }

{Breen San Diego Union-Tribune}

{Dana Summers/Tribune Content Agency}

Russo-Ukrainian War

“People live in a mediated world…The world they live in is not the world they read about.”

~ Bradley Hamm, Northwestern University Professor of Journalism

(Expand to see more from Professor Hamm) 

“Most people in the world don’t experience any events…they’ll never attend most of the things that they read about…People live in a mediated world…The world they live in is not the world they read about…you have no concept of what is true or what happened. You think you do, but that’s how people can be played so easily.”

Paul McCartney, a political scientist at Towson University, speaks on the similarities between news coverage of the Spanish-American War and Russo-Ukrainian War:

"The media played the central role in shaping the understanding of a public that otherwise has not previously had much occasion to learn the intricacies of the situation.” 

~ McCartney (Amid Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine, a Look Back at Yellow Journalism’s Role in the Spanish-American War)

Spanish-American War

The information from the newspapers regarding the sinking of the USS Maine "wasn’t misinformation in the sense that they were lying about a known fact.”

~ David Silbey, Cornell University historian 

Russo-Ukrainian War

“Today, many Americans recognize that the Russian people are not the cause of this invasion — that they themselves are being duped by Putin’s misinformation campaigns.”

~ Bonnie Miller, University of Massachusetts-Boston historian