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Short Essay On Muckraking

1055 Words5 Pages

In a world in which social change seems only to be achieved through modern and electronic mediums, the question of whether or not muckraking is still an effective form for creating social progress must be pondered. In the recent decades, muckraking has time and again proved to create profound advancements in the society we live in. Muckraking is still an effective means of creating change as evidenced by Richard Doll and Richard Peto’s work titled “Cigarette Smoking and Bronchial Carcinoma; Dose and Time Relationships Among Regular Smokers and Lifelong Non-Smokers.” One of the most renowned muckraking studies is that of Richard Doll and Richard Peto, and their work in discovering the incontrovertible connection between smoking and cancer. The study was conducted in Oxford, England over the course of 20 years, ending in the year 1969. In this period of time, the pair examined 34,440 men, their smoking habits, and later the …show more content…

The discovery linking smoking to cancer left society dumbfounded, taken back, and in disbelief. Despite this, the results of the clinical trial stood up to international scrutiny and eventually became validated as a source of truth. According to the results of the study, of the 34,440 men recorded in the 20 year period of study, 10,072 subsequently died of smoking related maladies (Doll and Peto). An overwhelming majority of the fatalities were attributed to illnesses such as lung cancer and heart disease, giving these lethal diseases a newfound source and preventability. The clinical trial eventually showed Peto and Doll that between ½ and ⅓ of all regular smokers will die from cigarette related illnesses (Doll and Peto). Once this information was released to the public, it slowly began a strong movement in the following decades to change the societal stigmas surrounding

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1065 Words | 5 Pages

Modern Day Muckraking “In 1979, Goldschmidt, who as mayor had won national renown for the development of the downtown bus mall and the city 's then-revolutionary light rail, was tapped by President Jimmy Carter to be Secretary of Transportation” (Jaquiss). Neil Goldschmidt was a very successful politician, but he was hiding a very dark secret that the people of Oregon deserved to know. Should the type of person, who raped a 14 year old girl for three years, be considered someone that the people of Oregon look up to? This is just one of the questions Nigel Jaquiss addressed in his article about the affair between Neil Goldschmidt and a 14 year old girl that occurred from 1975-1978 (Jaquiss).

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424 Words | 2 Pages

Muckrakers and unions helped by protesting against the dangerous conditions, unfair treatment, and dishonest dealings during the Progressive Era. These ordinary citizens often used writing or pictures to show the corruption of businesses and cruelty toward workers to the public. A prime example of this is Ida M. Tarbell, whose articles lead to the breaking up of Rockefeller’s oil monopoly. Tarbell wrote about social issues for McClure’s magazine, and in 1902, she published “The History of the Standard Oil Company”, which criticized corruption in the dominant oil corporation. Her writings made the public both aware of the issue and angry about it, and the growing outrage lead to the government disbanding the Standard Oil Company on the idea that it was a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

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459 Words | 2 Pages

During industrialization many problems were created that had to be fixed during the Progressive Era. Most of these problems were brought out into the light by muckrakers by using novels and political cartoons. After the people realized what was happening many laws were created to help fix these problems. One of the most famous muckrakers is Upton Sinclair, who wrote the novel, The Jungle.

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551 Words | 3 Pages

During the late 1800s, there were many problems with social life, the economy, and politics. Immigrants moving to America was a big cause that led to Progressive reforms. Reforms had become necessary and were made known by many Muckrakers, or progressive reformers. The president, Theodore Roosevelt, decided government had to be changed from laissez-faire because of the problems without the government's involvement in the economy. The social, political, and economical changes by those known as muckrakers would allow America to become a great reformed nation.

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271 Words | 2 Pages

The power of muckrakers are now more than ever since they gained respect and attention from people, Ray Stannard Baker published “The Right To Work” in a 1903 McClure’s Magazine article, to expose the lives of non-striking mine workers and dehumanizing mining conditions in general, Lincoln Steffens published the “he profiled corrupt leaders in St. Louis, in October 1902, Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of the Cities, American Century Series (New York: McClure, Philips & Co., 1904; Hill and Wang, 1957), 19–41. In McClure's Magazine. Ida Tarbell published the raise of standard oil company in the year 1902 giving details on the filthy dishonesty that was going on. Jungle magazine published the dark side of the meat packing industry in the United

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1194 Words | 5 Pages

The Truth Shall be Known Behind all the social media we have seen today and heard about, there must be a story behind them all. For the good or for the better. Muckraking journalists helped to point out the wrongs in the society and politics at the end of the nineteenth century because of the start of the Progressive Era exposed abuse of power, child labor, and to help change the US National policy today. Influence modern muckrakers to expose today’s issues like sterilization in female prisons and Ferguson.

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1141 Words | 5 Pages

As a Psychology major, I am taught to analyze people in an objective and holistic way. More than once, all humans tend to fall into the trap of the fundamental attribution error. The FAE is the claim that, in contrast to interpretations of their own behavior, people place undue emphasis on internal characteristics of the agent (character or intention), rather than external factors, in explaining another person’s behavior. This means that people tend to accuse a person's errors on internal factors, instead of how external factors can lead to errors. As I was reading “I’d

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1581 Words | 7 Pages

At the turn of the twentieth century a new part of America’s political culture was beginning to emerge due to the country’s advances in technology and specifically in the creation of mass magazine publications. These publications were able to reach largely the country’s growing middle class. These journalists soon noticed that their readers’ yearned for magazine articles that investigated the numerous dilemmas that plagued the American society at that time. The ground breaking journalists were labeled as “muckrakers” by President Roosevelt and often became a source of controversy within America’s political culture. Most muckrakers used their skills of descriptive writing to paint vivid and disturbing pictures of the lives many Americans were

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1534 Words | 7 Pages

The Progressive Era was a time period between 1890-1920 in U.S. history, where the world was stable and perfect in appearance, but behind the surface, was corrupt. With the Industrial Era also occurring at this very time pollution, poverty, and disease plagued cities. It was the job of muckrakers to expose this corrupt world and unveil it. Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, and Upton Sinclair were all famous muckrakers of their time. Ida was a journalist who investigated the corruption of businesses, more specifically John.

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419 Words | 2 Pages

Muckrakers basically were the group of journalists and members of the press who undertook the mission of investigating and revealing all of the corruptions and wrong doings, which were persistent among the big businesses or even in the government to the public. The name “Muckrakers” was the nickname given by President “Theodore Roosevelt” to these journalists who were cleaning the muck of the American society. These were the people who used their pen as a weapon to tackle and combat the negatives and evils that existed in the society, and they were the one who spread the calls to the public of the American society to work upon and fix those issues concerning the society and economy as a whole including the political problems as well. The muckrakers played a great role in promoting

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2329 Words | 10 Pages

All throughout history, common people are seen being taken advantage of by people of higher power. For a long time, people had no way to battle these injustices. Either they were to afraid to speak up, or they figured that they could just deal with these injustices, just like they had been doing their whole lives. At the turn of nineteenth century, things began to change. People stopped ignoring the fact that they were being mistreated.

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154 Words | 1 Pages

After that, it remained this rate for 5 years and then, it started to gradually decline to 200 people in every 1000 in 2000. In conlclusion, it is noticeable that more and more men in Someland decided to quit smoking. Meanwhile,

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849 Words | 4 Pages

Worldwide, tobacco use causes about 90% of lung cancer deaths, 30% of all cancers, 20-25% of coronary heart diseases and stroke deaths, and more than 80% of chronic bronchitis and emphysema”. (Jordan 1). Secondly not only does it affect smokers but even people who don 't even partake in the activity of smoking cigarettes. Second hand smoke is a serious issue and can cause cancer almost easy as being an actual smoker can.

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882 Words | 4 Pages

Smoking causes close to 40% of cancer death in the US. Each year, cigarettes kill about 500,000 deaths in the US and about 6 million deaths around the world. Cigarettes are the reason for most of the deaths in our society today that is not a death by a natural cause. Even though smoking has been in a sharp decline in the past decade, there are still around 40 million of people in the US that still smoke cigarettes. This high number really concerns many doctors and

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894 Words | 4 Pages

Many reports have been issued based on the evidence regarding the devastating health affecs of smoking and the expose of second hand smoke. Unfortunatly, cigarette smoking has reportedly caused about 480,000 deaths anually in the United States with an account of 41,000 deaths due to second hand smoking. It is indicated that America has the greatest heath issues from smoking. Neverless, it has been declining due to the rise on taxes and the promotions to cut down tabacco use advetisement. Smoking can be very addictive but there are many ways to help stop that I’ll get to soon.

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