On Muckraking and Blogging
If you are a student of journalism like I am, you may be as surprised as I was to discover that 2006 marks the 100th anniversary of the word “muckraking.” But there it was in the July 3 issue of Time Magazine devoted to Theodore Roosevelt. Apparently, he coined the word in an off-the-record speech at the Gridiron Club in Washington.
Now a badge of honor, muckraker was an unfavorable term given to individuals who in Roosevelt’s mind “continue racking muck instead of looking to the heavens.”
These reformed-minded journalists, writers and activists yielded tremendous influence in the first decade of the twentieth century. But by the early teens, their clout had diminished. The publications that once thrived on the muckrakers’ zeal became victims of advertisers and creditors. Advertising dollars dried up, and publications changed policies or died on the vine. Sponsors became none too pleased by the critical stances that muckrakers would often take against their business interests.
So as we observe this important milestone in journalistic history, I would like to take a moment to consider the muckraking legacy and how it lives on with today’s bloggers. What can we learn from our 20th century predecessors?
Certainly, blogging, like muckraking did a century ago, can inspire great passion – at once praised and hyped or vilified and dismissed.
Like muckrakers, bloggers have benefited from changes in content creation and distribution. Where we have the Internet, they witnessed the emergence of the popular press and inexpensive, widely read magazines.
For some perspective I dusted off a college text book – Richard Hofstadter’s landmark book, The Age of Reform. According to Mr. Hofstadter, muckraking’s reformist streak was not what made it new ; it was “its reach – its nationwide character and its capacity to draw nationwide attention, the presence of mass muckraking media with national circulations, and huge resources for the research that went with that exposure.”
Today, the cost of entry for blogging is almost non-existent. Bloggers don’t require huge resources and are not beholden to advertising revenue or large circulations for sustainability. In most instances, passion and an Internet connection are all they need to promote a cause or bring down a journalist, politician or company.
And so today bloggers are flourishing where muckrakers couldn’t. They are ushering in a new era of muckraking built on new rules of engagement and a new form of journalistic realism.
In exposing abuses in business and corruption in politics, muckrakers introduced a growing number of readers to a rough and tumble world that had remained hidden from their view. Their subjects were new and so was their language – at once sensationalist, accessible, unadorned and realistic.
Bloggers too are challenging institutions and centers of power, exploring new subjects and redefining the relationship between public and private. Often just amateurs and proudly so, successful bloggers take a more personal, informal tone with interaction and dialogue as their goal. The new aesthetic is about inserting one’s passion into the discussion, blurring the distinction between personal and professional. One’s feelings and attitudes happily coexist with the facts and speculation.
One only has to look at the changing practices and policies of business and mainstream media for proof of blogging’s burgeoning influence. Corporate blogs are more commonplace with transparency and candor as goals. Journalists now have blogs that are informal, personal and interactive. Rather than being swept under the rug, blogs are embraced as opportunities to advance corporate objectives, and bloggers are courted and solicited for their opinions.
So as July 4th approaches, I would like to express my appreciation for the freedom to muckrake and blog away and for the pioneering efforts of muckraking stars like Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell and Lincoln Steffens who set the stage 100 years ago.
To my American friends, happy July 4th. Let me get back to you.
Now a badge of honor, muckraker was an unfavorable term given to individuals who in Roosevelt’s mind “continue racking muck instead of looking to the heavens.”
These reformed-minded journalists, writers and activists yielded tremendous influence in the first decade of the twentieth century. But by the early teens, their clout had diminished. The publications that once thrived on the muckrakers’ zeal became victims of advertisers and creditors. Advertising dollars dried up, and publications changed policies or died on the vine. Sponsors became none too pleased by the critical stances that muckrakers would often take against their business interests.
So as we observe this important milestone in journalistic history, I would like to take a moment to consider the muckraking legacy and how it lives on with today’s bloggers. What can we learn from our 20th century predecessors?
Certainly, blogging, like muckraking did a century ago, can inspire great passion – at once praised and hyped or vilified and dismissed.
Like muckrakers, bloggers have benefited from changes in content creation and distribution. Where we have the Internet, they witnessed the emergence of the popular press and inexpensive, widely read magazines.
For some perspective I dusted off a college text book – Richard Hofstadter’s landmark book, The Age of Reform. According to Mr. Hofstadter, muckraking’s reformist streak was not what made it new ; it was “its reach – its nationwide character and its capacity to draw nationwide attention, the presence of mass muckraking media with national circulations, and huge resources for the research that went with that exposure.”
Today, the cost of entry for blogging is almost non-existent. Bloggers don’t require huge resources and are not beholden to advertising revenue or large circulations for sustainability. In most instances, passion and an Internet connection are all they need to promote a cause or bring down a journalist, politician or company.
And so today bloggers are flourishing where muckrakers couldn’t. They are ushering in a new era of muckraking built on new rules of engagement and a new form of journalistic realism.
In exposing abuses in business and corruption in politics, muckrakers introduced a growing number of readers to a rough and tumble world that had remained hidden from their view. Their subjects were new and so was their language – at once sensationalist, accessible, unadorned and realistic.
Bloggers too are challenging institutions and centers of power, exploring new subjects and redefining the relationship between public and private. Often just amateurs and proudly so, successful bloggers take a more personal, informal tone with interaction and dialogue as their goal. The new aesthetic is about inserting one’s passion into the discussion, blurring the distinction between personal and professional. One’s feelings and attitudes happily coexist with the facts and speculation.
One only has to look at the changing practices and policies of business and mainstream media for proof of blogging’s burgeoning influence. Corporate blogs are more commonplace with transparency and candor as goals. Journalists now have blogs that are informal, personal and interactive. Rather than being swept under the rug, blogs are embraced as opportunities to advance corporate objectives, and bloggers are courted and solicited for their opinions.
So as July 4th approaches, I would like to express my appreciation for the freedom to muckrake and blog away and for the pioneering efforts of muckraking stars like Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell and Lincoln Steffens who set the stage 100 years ago.
To my American friends, happy July 4th. Let me get back to you.
