Muckraker

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In the history of newspapers in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century, American journalists and writers, who can be regarded as the fathers of investigative journalism , were referred to as Muckraker ( English for "dung scratchers, dirt rummages, nest dirtiers") . Their work is seen in close connection with the era of American progressivism .

They exposed social grievances, dirty business, felt, nepotism and corruption in business and politics. The then US President Theodore Roosevelt referred to these journalists as muckraker , after a character in John Bunyan's work The Pilgrim's Progress , the Man with Muckrake (man with the pitchfork) who scrapes the droppings of the animals from a stable. God wants to put a crown of faith on this man because he does this dirty but necessary work every day without complaint and reliably; but the man with the muckrake has forgotten how to look up to heaven because he is looking down, and therefore does not even notice God's offer. The figure represents a person who is so absorbed in his everyday life that he forgets God.

Roosevelt called the work of the Muckraker extremely necessary, but warned them to always stick to the truth. The public followed the revelations with growing interest, and eventually a muckraking movement developed that resulted in much judicial inquiries into the affairs and some legislative reforms.

The most famous literary work of the Muckraker era is The Jungle by Upton Sinclair . Investigative journalism was previously represented by Benjamin Flower , Ida Tarbell and Lincoln Steffens and strongly influenced Sinclair. But the book itself and its legislative consequences also stimulated this type of journalism. Other well-known Muckrakers in the era of progressivism were Samuel Hopkins Adams and Nellie Bly .

Origin and Development of Muckraking

The emergence of Muckraking can be classified fairly precisely in the beginning of the 20th century. Roosevelt's disrespectful designation of investigative journalists as Muckraker originally referred to the series of articles, The Treason in the Senate, by David Graham Phillips . Philipps accused the then high-ranking politicians of the USA, among other things, of promoting the interests of the rich social classes and preferring certain companies to bribes when placing orders. But despite Roosevelt's negative assessment of investigative activities, an intense media movement developed, which was soon joined by a large number of journalists. In addition, the term 'Muckraking' gave way to the more benevolent term public service journalism .

The dynamization of Muckraking was favored by technical and economic changes. The last third of the 19th century brought about technical innovations that made it possible for the printing industry to publish its printed products on a massive scale. Comprehensive optimization of the US postal system set the course for faster and more practical, organized distribution of print media. The reach of print publications increased in the last third of the 19th century from around 6% to around 20% of the American population at the time. The improved printing and distribution mechanisms resulted in an increase in the income of the daily newspapers, which could now afford to offer more leeway for their journalistic work. Extensive, investigative research was now affordable.

It was not just the number of journalistic actors involved in muckering that increased during that time. Thanks to the cheaper production, newspapers and magazines could now be sold more cheaply. The falling sales prices meant that not only the upper class of the American population could afford newspapers and magazines. The middle class were also able to participate more and more in the consumption of print media. While the readers of the upper class were mostly interested in columnist content, the readers of the middle class were mainly interested in everyday and practical topics (hard news). Most of the time these were topics from politics and business.

By 1916, the number of newspaper titles rose to a maximum of 2,461. The number of magazines jumped from 1200 to 5500 different copies. 20 million households have now been reached, which documents a nationwide need for information with a total population of 90 million people. The resulting increase in competition in the print landscape ensured that the editorial offices were looking for ideas. Among the new ideas, the conceptions of those scandal-revealing stories that can be assigned to the genre of Muckraking prevailed. Muckraking articles were published as series in order to keep readers interested.

Properties of Muckraking Articles

The Muckraking articles were thematically varied. The same subject has never been used twice. On another level, however, there are very striking similarities. This applies above all to the roll call function, which can be seen across the board in both of the examples of Muckraking articles shown. First of all, the authors of named articles understand how to personalize the problem. Every reader feels addressed himself when taking in the information. The authors also show the immorally acting actors from society and the economy the possibilities of the extent of their actions and clearly mentioned the extent of consequences this can have for the individual concerned. As a result, they did not hesitate to accuse the reader of inaction. The aim was to get the general public to act in the spirit of progressivism. The reform will of the American people should be kindled and incited by this procedure.

Political Impact of the Muckraking Era

The question of the concrete and direct influence of the Muckraking contributions on certain changes in the law cannot be conclusively clarified according to the current literature. Nevertheless, one can bring some cases into context, so that it also becomes clear that the muckraking was by and large not only part of the reform period, but can also be seen as a catalyst for these processes. Some connections between Muckraking articles and amendments to the law are shown as examples.

After the publication of his reports on the scandalous conditions in slaughterhouses, Upton Sinclair could look with satisfaction at the Pure Food and Drug Act , which largely takes his demands into account. The change was added to current US law six months after his book The Jungle was published . In addition, his demands for occupational health and safety measures and maternity leave were met, which means that they have found their way into the USA relatively quickly. The rights of the general workforce were also strengthened by the Clayton Antitrust Act . Upton Sinclair received support mainly from the then US President Theodore Roosevelt .

Ida Tarbell's coverage of the Standard Oil Company prompted the tightening of the Sherman Antitrust Act , which was officially in place since 1890, but which left the reins dragged for a long time in its implementation. Tarbell's criticism raised awareness of existing law. Monopolies and market-dominating influence of individual companies were thus prevented.

Another example of a change in the law as a result of muckraking activities is the Newspaper Publicity Act , which manifested the position of the press as the fourth state power.

Decline of Muckraking

The decline of the Muckraking era after around 15 years is due to two factors.

Political and social factors

First of all, the political factors must be named. The presidential election campaign between Theodore Roosevelt , Woodrow Wilson and Eugene Debs split the hitherto politically homogeneous music-racing scene. In the end, Roosevelt's election failure had a negative impact on the progress of the muckraking, as over time it had adopted and represented central aspects of the muckraking movement.

Another key point of decline was the entry of the US into the First World War . As a result, there was a shift in interests from domestic affairs to foreign affairs . The events on the European front became more interesting and overlaid domestic political events. Associated with the decline in music-racing activities is the dwindling reader interest in scandalous material. A certain “scandal fatigue” was evident in the population. This can be explained by the mass of uncovered scandals, which made the special and attractive moment about the articles disappear.

Economic factors

Economic conditions went hand in hand with the political factors described above. The number of copies and the variety of titles had passed its zenith in 1910, after which the numbers for a decade were in decline. As already mentioned, the publishers of Muckraking-Medien were on thin financial ice that had to face increasing sales losses. The increasing financial problems of newspapers and magazines either led to bankruptcy or to the fact that they were "eaten up" by larger media groups. The higher-level corporations mostly did not tolerate excessively critical reports, so that the editorial content had to be put into perspective.

Presence of Muckraking

Although the Muckraking era came to an end around 1917, there have been and are still journalists and publications that - following the Muckraker tradition - uncovered hidden grievances and brought about changes through the democratic public. Muckraker is also based on this in the title of the members ' newspaper of the investigative journalists' association Netzwerk Recherche . The best-known German representative of this form of journalism is Günter Wallraff .

Katherine Mayo , Gustavus Myers, later Eric Schlosser are also representatives of the genre. Seymour Hersh gained popularity over the last few decades through a large number of revelations, most recently through his research on the Abu Ghraib torture scandal .

See also

literature

  • Gustavus Myers : Money. Whom the Rockefellers, Astors, Vanderbilts, Pullmans, Carnegies, Morgans etc. took away the money. And how! Inner UT: The Great American Fortunes. in German: S. Fischer Verlag, 1916 u. ö.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert Miraldi: The Pen is mightier. The Muckraking Life of Charles Edward Russell. New York (et al.) 2003.
  2. ^ Alfred McClung Lee: The Daily Newspaper in America. New York 1982.
  3. ↑ Cornelius Regier: The Era of the Muckrakers. Chapel Hill 1932.
  4. ^ A b c Fay Cook (et al.): The Journalism of Outrage. Investigative Reporting and Agenda Building in America. New York 1991.
  5. ↑ Hans Leyendecker: Portrait: Günter Wallraff - Millionaire of grievances . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . May 17, 2010 ( sueddeutsche.de ).