Muckraking Journalism

From Unawiki

Muckraking Journalism is a type of investigative journalism that flourished in the period of 1902 to 1912 within the scope of progressivism. It was typically concerned with the exposure of abuses, corruption and injustice and industry and politics. In the late 19th century the agrarian country became industrialized which lead to sociopolitical conflicts, resulting in bad living conditions for poor workers, many of them immigrants. This circumstance was legitimized by socialdarwinism’s ‘survival of the fittest’. The journalists were documenting these living conditions by visiting their neighbourhoods, showing their homes and worked together with newspapers to inform the majority about these consequences of the Gilded Age to fight socialdarwinism. It had a counterpart in the muckraking novel of social protest in realist style to inform and provoke reforms. The term ‘muckrakers’ was created by Theodore Roosevelt disapprovingly, because they searched the most filthiest places to work. An example is Jacob Riis with his photo-publication “How the other half lives”.