Jerry Summers
Most of the modern day news media sources in 2023 have either been accused of engaging in “tabloid journalism” by their competition in print radio, television, etc. or public officials or politicians with whom they disagree on one or several issues.
The term actually originated in England in 1884 when a British pharmaceutical company registered a trademark for the word “tabloid” for a very small pill it had developed as part of a marketing program.
A battle of words was taking place at that time between large broadsheet newspapers who were being challenged for customer circulation by small format journals.
Because the term “tabloid” had become known as anything small it was applied to the new papers.
Those small tabloids often resorted to gossip instead of hard news which gave sloppy news reporting in the name “tabloid journalism”.
(Depending on a reader or viewers’ personal or political point of view the term is no longer limited to the size of the media source.)
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You can reach Jerry Summers at jsummers@summersfirm.com