Muckraking

Cleansing of New York. Dalrymple, Louis. 1900. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Cleansing the City

The pioneering tycoons tested new limits by
delving into the concept of their responsibility to justice
as powerful journalists through muckraking.

A Moral Agent

W.R. and Pulitzer took it upon themselves to utilize their papers to
reveal injustices and fight crime. They believed that their papers were a moral agent, and that they had a social duty to the public.

Columbia University Rare Book &
Manuscript Library.

Muckraking in Journalism

Courtesy of Haiku Deck

As a part of the Progressive Era, reporters known as
muckrakers went to unrivaled extents in their investigations
to expose corruption to the public.

Joseph Pulitzer and William Hearst were dominant newspapers led the way for the inception of progressive muckraking in magazines, albeit for perhaps questionable intentions.

Nellie Bly, portrait from the Library of Congress

Groundbreaking Journalist Nellie Bly

In the late 1880s, Joseph Pulitzer recruited investigative reporter
Nellie Bly to go undercover in an insane asylum. After her first-hand study,
she revealed the horrors of the asylum by publishing "Ten Days in a Madhouse," an article that drastically paved the way for reform in medical care for the insane.