The Influences of Nellie Bly on Journalism
The field of mass media and journalism was built by the people to spread news across the globe in hopes of having a broader idea of government, conflicts and life as a whole. Since 59 B.C. when the first newspaper, Acta Diurna, was published in Rome, the field has been dominated by males. Men were considered to be fit for reporting because they were allowed to have an education and through social standards, seen as the only dominating factor when broached with an important decision or for an expert opinion on any topic. After equality within education started effecting the social norms, women began to branch out of the standards they were previously hindered by to become more forceful in competition with jobs, pay and intelligence. Through these changes, pushed along by war and protests, various areas of the work force slowly began to integrate women as part of their company communities. The field of mass media has been changed drastically through incorporating women, such as Nellie Bly, into the communications field and using their perspectives to get new angles for stories and in turn, improving investigative journalism and societal normalities.
Elizabeth Jane Cochran, better known by her pen name, Nellie Bly, was the inventor of investigative reporting, according to The National Women’s History Museum. Investigative journalism was such a big step for the mass media because it gave the “potential to present new realities and shatter old paradigms” (Parry, Robert). During the mid to late 1800s, humanitarian problems such as the treatment of the mentally ill, government regulations of corporations and the lack of equality between genders were never fully covered by the news due to the...
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... investigative pieces about sweatshops, jails and bribery
(The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica.) The significance of her reporting skills has changed many things about our society when it comes to human rights in the work place, treatment of patients with disabilities and the empowerment of the adverse people to feel like they can make a difference in the surrounding community, to not only better their lives but to better the lives of their neighbors and the future generations.
Soon after Bly started getting recognition for her work there was a social acceptance of women being able to approach investigative journalism in an intrusive way that men were previously unable to do. The expectations of women not being active in society beyond housekeeping and childbearing was the thought process that allowed Bly to go undercover to find out the hard truth of a story
When discussing the media, we must search back to its primal state the News Paper. For it was the News paper and its writers that forged ahead and allowed freedoms for today’s journalism on all fronts, from the Twitter accounts to the daily gazettes all must mark a single event in the evolution of media in respects to politics and all things shaping. Moving on in media history, we began to see a rapid expansion around 1990. With more than 50% of all American homes having cable TV access, newspapers in every city and town with major newspaper centers reaching far more than ever before. Then the introduction of the Internet; nothing would ever be the same.
Originally born Elizabeth Jane Cochrane, Bly has made many significant strides in the world of women journalism. She was born in 1864, and was a female muckraker during the Progressive era. (Christensen 1) After landing a job with the newspaper The Pittsburgh Dispatch in 1885 she decided to pack up and move to New York. She received a job at the New York World newspaper. Her first assignment from the newspaper was to feign mental illness in order to be committed to the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island. (Garraty 78) The Blackwell’s Lunatic Asylum was known for mistreating its patients. In 1840, the insane in the United States numbered 17,456 out of the total population of 17,069,453 people. The country’s fourteen hospitals for the mentally ill had a capacity of less than twenty-five hundred beds. (Herrmann 9) In search o...
In "Where the girls are: Growing Up Female With the Mass Media," Susan Douglas analyses the effects of mass media on women of the nineteen fifties, and more importantly on the teenage girls of the baby boom era. Douglas explains why women have been torn in conflicting directions and are still struggling today to identify themselves and their roles. Douglas recounts and dissects the ambiguous messages imprinted on the feminine psyche via the media. Douglas maintains that feminism is a direct result of the realization that mass media is a deliberate and calculated aggression against women. While the media seemingly begins to acknowledge the power of women, it purposely sets out to redefine women and the qualities by which they should define themselves. The contradictory messages received by women leave women not only in a love/hate relationship with the media, but also in a love/hate relationship with themselves.
“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” These words from Ida B. Wells clearly state the purpose of journalism, which is meant to enlighten people of the truths of their society. It is meant to help people find a place for themselves in the world. I chose Ida B. Wells because her legacy is too great not to share. She was a woman who refused to accept the world as it was. She was a rebel, a radical, a patriot, and a unifier. She is one of the most iconic and important figures in both Civil Rights history and American history. Her works exemplify the power of journalism and what an important
When the story of a kidnapped boy broke out on May 23, 1924 the mass media immediately began to develop a story about the crime. Journalists were major contributors to the solving of the crime. Two journalists, James Mulroy and Alvin Goldstein, won the Pulitzer Prize for their contributions. The journalists were the bases of public knowledge for the case and therefore had lots of power in influencing the public’s opinion. However because of this, journalist often crossed the line between fact and fiction. They used total coverage of this case—something they had never done before—and created a case with social interpretation and sensationalism. Any information they could get, t...
Edward R. Murrow’s profound impact on the field of journalism defines much of what the modern news media industry is today. Edward R. Murrow’s career offers aspiring journalist a detailed set of standards and moral codes in how a journalist should receive and report the news. The development of CBS is largely attributed to Murrow, and derives from his ambitious attitude in utilizing the television and radio to deliver the news. Murrow gained a stellar reputation in the minds of American’s during WWII by placing himself in the heart of the war, and delivering information through radio in his famous This is London broadcasts. His battles with Senator Joseph McCarthy are largely referred to as his most prominent achievement in which Murrow exposed the unfair practices of Senator McCarthy in his wild accusations on those in the American public of being affiliated with communism. At the RTNDA conference Murrow arguably deliver his most famous speech, which included his hopes and fears of the news media industry in years to come. Although much of today’s news media industry would be held in disdain in the mind of Murrow his practices are still referred due and held in high regard by his contemporaries and fellow aspiring journalist. Edward R. Murrow set the standard of American journalism, and had the largest individual impact on the news media industry in history.
The author provides a rough timeline of the objective norm emerging in American journalism, and explains the inner origin of these co...
...nd it was through her continuous attention to reporting detail that she was able to have such an effect on the society. The accounts of lynchings throughout her works are horrific and proved extremely difficult to read. Although the inclusion of these appalling descriptions adds the extra emphasize needed to really send the message home that something needed to be done about the problem at hand. It is not until we face the brutal facts that we are able to fully understand an issue in entirety. In 2009, “15,241 people were murdered; an estimated 88,097 were forcibly raped, and another estimated 806,843 were victims of aggravated assaults nationwide.” When presented in such alarming statistics, those nameless murders and rapes the local newscaster slips into her monologue every night become slightly less forgettable.
When Answering the question whether Sally Bowles fails as a femme fatale and becomes a striking figure of a woman of the 1970s feminist, this concurs a question that we must intern first, who is Sally Bowles?
Dr. Jennifer Greer need not verbally utter any detail regarding the extent of her success in journalism. By simply taking a look around her office in the Journalism Department at the University of Alabama, one can resolve that Dr. Greer’s journalism career has been nothing short of admirable. Adorning the walls of her fourth floor office, various plaques and certificates give undeniable evidence of Dr. Greer’s commendable success. Beginning with her Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia and continuing on to her Ph.D. from the University of Florida, Dr. Greer has achieved a long list of accomplishments, especially in the field of journalism. In fact, Dr. Greer has spent the majority of her life successfully learning to be a journalist.
Eudora Welty was not silent when it came to social issues. In her own, sometimes-quiet ways, she fought discrimination and racism and inequality. She voiced her opinions and beliefs. Her stories can speak loudly of the injustices of a tainted society, but these protests are only heard by those who immerse themselves in her work, by those who reach beneath the surface to find the true meaning of the subtle events that comprise her stories.
For example, In 2011, the Commission of the image of women in the media(Commission sur l’image des femmes dans les medias) in France, published an annual report. The commission was organized in 2009, in the social context that the women are not well represented in the media. The report tried to figure out the percentage of female ‘experts’ in the media including radio and TV. According to the report, 80% of the experts who appeared in the media were male. Considering the fact that the casting process is totally dependent on the decision of the production and their idea of ‘who is more likely to appear as serious and trustful person’, the result is quite shocking. It shows that the image of female in the media is rather a testifier or a victim, than an expert. The social position of women has been significantly improved in last hundred years, but how media treat them has not been pulled out from the traditional-patriarchal view point. This could be very dangerous because mass-media is accessible for people of all social classes and age groups, and for the most of t...
Ceulemans, Mieke, and Guido Fauconnier. "Mass Media: The Image, Role, and Social Conditions of Women." Global Media Journal June 2012: 1-79.
An argument can be made that Journalism is one of the very few professions in the world of media that is handled with some sort of dignity and pride. After reading “The Elements of Journalism” by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, I realized how important journalism is to each and every one of us. Whether you’re a writer or a reader, the back and forth exchange between provider and consumer is extremely important in pushing society forward. Journalism after all is designed to challenge society, promote new ideas and spark conversation between one another. Despite the positives of journalism, there are issues that exist within the profession that cannot be excused and cannot be ignored.
When people imagine women in the media we often imagine women playing a negative role. As our media sources grow women continue to establish a negative stigma to them. Research shows that women in the media should either have bodies that may not be attainable and play a role where they have to find a man to obtain success and happiness. Although, women have extensively roles in every characteristic of life, the extended list of in human behavior given seems to never end. Sources such as the government and social action groups are taking helpful actions to supply women true pride in economic, social and personal areas. In attempt the mass media have a critical role reporting misleading actions, using public opinions, bringing social change and emphasizing positive improvement.