Muckraking Newspapers And Magazines Essay Research Paper

Muckraking Newspapers And Magazines Essay, Research Paper

Muckraking

For much of the 1800s, newspapers and magazines had been relatively expensive and mainly a medium for poems, short stories, and other literary works. Besides the largely entertainment oriented approach of these magazines, the majority of the people that read them were upper class citizens of the cities. However, with innovations in the late 19th century that reduced the cost of printing, the price of the printed communication medium dropped drastically. Instead of upper class city-dwellers being the exclusive audience of newspapers and magazines, the middle and even lower class citizens started to read them on a regular basis. The content of the magazines and newspapers increased to cover news and editorials, as well as provide entertainment as in previous years. Shortly after, another type of journalism started to show up in the magazines. In addition to the general news, literary works, and other normal features of magazines, there was the introduction of hard-hitting factual stories that screamed about the wrongs of society. This new type of journalism was called muckraking and those journalists that wrote in that style were known as muckrakers.

Muckraking was a new type of investigative journalism that had rarely been seen before. Instead of the soft-spoken commentaries that were so common, the new journalism was filled with hard-hitting, well investigated facts. Muckrakers investigated the corruption of business, politics, and the labor movement and spread it all in front of their readers. They weren t there to make friends or to appease the people who held power in the U.S.; they were there to make a point. They were there to point out policy and practice in America that needed changed or crushed and during the era, there were many issues to choose from.

In the late 19th century, there was large-scale corruption across the United States. Politics, big business, and labor unions were filled with bribery and crime. The Land of the Free had turned to the Land of the Few. One of the biggest factors in this corruption was the rise of industrialism. Before the Civil War, a large corporation had a few hundred workers and a bank account with thousands of dollars. However, the corporation of the post-Civil War period made the previous companies look like small home-run businesses. As Ellen F. Fitzpatrick in Muckraking writes:

Railroads, with their huge administrative structure, large capital investment, extensive numbers of employees, and complex business activities stood in marked distinction to most American firms in 1861. With thousands of miles of track, hundreds of thousands of employees, and capital accounts reaching into the millions of dollars, large railroad companies foreshadowed new forms of corporate organization that would be the hallmark of the modern American economy. (4)

As these vast companies continued to grow, there was a time known as the great merger movement in which one hundred fifty giant holding companies swallowed close to two thousand other businesses (4). Due to the massive size of these business machines, some of the largest corporations controlled forty percent of the market share and in other areas of business, companies such as Standard Oil were considered monopolies by many. Despite legislation such as the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 which was designed to help control these big businesses, they continued to increase in power and wealth. Due to the presence of these firms, many people were troubled regarding the roles of individuals, small producers, and local entrepreneurs in a mass industrial society (5).

Because of the competition caused by such a growth in industry, all was not smooth in the business world. Strong competition, large capital requirements, an unpredictable consumer market, and the continued drive to increase the bottom line lead to price cutting across the board. Much of the cuts came from the labor costs.

Due to the lack of labor laws during the late 1800s, labor conditions were best described as terrible if not heinous. It was not uncommon for a man, woman, or child to be working twelve hour days, seven days a week. Salaries rose and even more frequently fell at the drop of a pin. Industrial accidents were considered just part of the job with fifteen hundred to two thousand deaths per year in the coal mines of the nation alone. Job security was an unheard of phrase and continual depressions and recessions made unemployment all too common. Due to these horrible conditions, workers organized and formed labor unions. However, there was little recognition of the right to organize much less the right to have labor unions represent the workers and strikes frequently turned into bloody riots and the innocent bystander all too often became a hapless victim.

Industrialism also capitalized on the corruption of the political system. Private firms commonly bribed legislators and officials to secure moneymaking contracts and lucrative terms. Businesses would choose how their employees voted by threatening them with unemployment. Trusts held off regulation by fillings the pockets of judges, jurists, and congressional representatives alike. As Fitzpatrick wrote, Industrialism increasingly determined the content of late-nineteenth-century politics . . . (6).

Even without the influence of firms