Nellie Bly Impact On The World

Nellie Bly, also known by the name Elizabeth Cochran, pioneered investigative journalism. She is known for many works of journalism and research, but the thread connecting it all is the great risks she took to improve the world. The daring way she reported her articles inspired many of the journalists and reporters that would come after her time and would expose misconduct in systems of all kinds. From traversing the globe to researching a medical institution and combatting sexism, her bravery and inquisitiveness has made a great impact. Nellie Bly’s risk-taking reporting opened doors for women to be journalists and created a type of reporting that could further specific civic and social agendas that include the way people with mental illnesses

The ways she influenced the world were both insignificant and significant. A game about her travels around the world was made, titled, “Round the World with Nellie Bly, a Novel and Fascinating Game with Plenty of Excitement by Land and Sea” (Huet). She wrote two books on her experiences. Bly “recounted her journey in a book entitled Around the World in Seventy-Two Days” (Huet), and then Bly “published her daring dispatches as a book, “Ten Days in a Mad-House” (Markel). Because of the exposés on Blackwell’s Island’s New York City Lunatic Asylum, the aldermen of the area “‘appropriate[s] an extra $1,000,000 per annum’ to correct many of the abuses Bly exposed” (Markel). Also due to her investigation into the insane asylum, “ a grand jury was impaneled to investigate the abuses and poor treatments Bly uncovered at the asylum… [soon after this investigation,] better living and sanitary conditions were instituted” (Markel). Lastly, and perhaps most important, she is known as the person who “pioneered the field of ‘detective’ or ‘stunt’ reporting” ( Kroeger. "BLY, NELLIE). For America at the time, Nellie Bly is a phenomenon that left board games, books, and reforms in her