The media has a tremendous amount of power in a democratic society. Their role is much greater than just receiving and giving information, from entertaining and educating us, they create our reality. Freedom of expression is one of the fundamental freedoms, but it also carries with it a great deal of responsibility, because the written and spoken word can greatly affect human lives, so it is important that the information provided is verified and truthful and in no way misused. However, since only people work in the media industry, it is difficult to maintain complete objectivity and impartiality in reporting, the media are very much under pressure from the public as well as from politics, despite numerous legal regulations guaranteeing their freedom. Journalists, on the other hand, are also under pressure from their superiors because, at the end of the day, news is a commodity to be sold. This is precisely what has made ethics in the media questionable, especially in the present day when sensationalist headlines sell newspapers best. It has become very difficult to balance between true and false information and respect for human rights, the rights to privacy and human dignity, and therefore articles appearing in the media are more and more often threatened. Sensationalism can be very dangerous, because regardless of the sanctions that the media may suffer for ethics violations, once published news labels forever those that have been written, even if the allegations are denied or the mistake is admitted. The aim of this paper, through examples of sensationalist articles, is to highlight the impact of media on human lives and the impact of sensationalism on the media image in Croatia.