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Jazz journalism was a term applied to American sensational newspapers in the 1920s. Focused on entertainment, celebrities, sports, scandal and crime, the style was a New York phenomenon, practiced primarily by three new tabloid-size daily newspapers in a fight for circulation. Convenient for readers on subways, the small-format papers were designed to display large page one photographs and headlines for newsstand sales. The tabloids' popularity was controversial, but also influenced the city's and nation's more traditional media, especially when columnist Walter Winchell became popular both in print and on the air.[1]
Jazz journalism was a sensationalist style of news that matched its era, the rebellious Roaring Twenties, a dramatic change from the somber news of World War I. The new tabloid newspapers featured provocative headlines and photographs, and stories about entertainment celebrities, sex scandals, and murder trials.[2]