Muckraking

        Over time muckraking has become a very controversial topic between honor and exposure, through the evolution of muckraking there are answers to both sides.  Muckraking is beneficial to society when it is used in the right way, but there are circumstances where it is wrongfully done.

        In the early 20th century muckrakers exposed many of the social problems in safety, sanitation, and preparation.  A journalist named Upton Sinclair wrote a book called “The Jungle”.  This book portrayed the harsh conditions and exploited lives of immigrants in industrialized cities.  The book caught Theodore Roosevelt’s attention and eventually Roosevelt passed the Meat Inspection Act, which is still in affect today.  Through this exposure we enhanced our meat processing standards to help prevent disease and injury.  After the act was passed, the meat-packaging employees knew Sinclair as a hero.  Around the same time period another provocative author named Jacob Riis published a book called “How the Other Half Lives”.  This book documents the terrible living conditions in New York City slums in the 1880’s.  Riis wanted to bring social reform to the streets of New York.  After this book went viral, Housing Acts were passed, which raised the standard of living to an all time high in New York City.  In this time period these articles were peoples only way of news so they cherished and focused a lot more on articles like these.  It was hard for people to not care about certain topics because in some cases this was their only hope for change.

        August 31st, 2014 was the start of the on online cult called ‘The Fappening”.  This was an anonymous hacker who hacked into thousands of icloud accounts including 100 celebrities.  They posted hundreds of peoples private photos on the Internet for the world to see.  This version of muckraking is a disgrace to society and should be eradicated from existence.  These photos completely obstructed these people’s privacy, and even if they delete them it will never be forgotten.  Paparazzi are another common example of how journalists muckrake in today’s society.  Celebrities are regular people too and since paparazzi became an aspect of society, many civil liberties of celebrities are limited, which is something we all take for granted.  People shouldn’t live in fear of going outside and being photographed.  “That is the biggest form of bullying ever, the paparazzi, printing lies, making accusations, it’s just bullying.” - Mila Kunis.  This quote is a good example of emotions towards paparazzi from a celebrity’s point of view.  There should be no pride in this version of muckraking only regret.  Both aspects of journalism above are perfect examples of how journalists that search out and expose real or apparent misconduct go too far in the pursuit of their stories.