The correct answer is: "Journalists had an important influence on Americans' attitudes about the war"
The term Spanish-American war describes the conflict that started in 1898 due to the intervention of the US in the Cuban War of Independence, that was being fought between Spain, the colonist power, and Cuba.
The intervention of the US in the conflict was justified by the US goverment due to humanitarian reasons, although historians really put this in doubt. The fact was that the yellow press in the US continously published the atrocities that the Spanish were commiting against the Cuban civilians, in an extremely exagerated manner. As a result, those publications contributed to position the US public opinion in favour of the intervention, as they regarded the Spanish as monsters. The intervention was triggered due to the explosion of the USS Maine in the Habana Harvor, that was considered an attack perpetrated by the Spanish although, even nowadays, the cause is still unknown.