Jacob Riis: Pictures Of The Poor Recall

Investigative journalism has brought to light the many horrible things that were happening behind closed doors. Without investigative journalism and muckrakers, when would we have ever become aware of what was happening. Up until the early 1900’s, food and medicine industries were not as regulated as they are today. Muckrakers such as Upton Sinclair experienced the reality of meat packaging plants. He found how unsanitary the food was handled and how horribly the workers were being treated. Sinclair was disappointed that people only got to realize that their food was being mishandled rather than how harsh the workers were being treated. He famously quoted “I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”(gilderlehrman.org). Samuel Hopkins Adams exposed that patent medicines were dangerous. He explained that they were harming people rather than helping them

The portrayal of Jacob Riis’ views through his book ‘How the Other Half Lives,’ is conveyed by storytelling and is largely made of logos, however the key component is actually ethos, like a politician running a campaign, Jacob Riis’s uses logos and pathos to create a persona of authority on the topic of the poor in New York City. I am going to look in depth on how Riis uses different approaches to convey his views to his audience: why does do some of Riis’ key texts contradict each other? Is he conscious of if? Is it brilliant?

The pros of the recall of elected officials is that “it provides a way for citizens to retain control over elected officials who are not representing the best interests of their constituents, or who are unresponsive or incompetent” (Recall of State Officials, 2013, September 11). This gives us “we the people” an opportunity to help out our state and the citizens within it. It gives us a voice. Now why giving the power directly to the people in should regards to referendum and how will it benefit our society? Referendums allow “citizens to determine policy directions on particular issues and to make and repeal laws by a direct vote of the people” (Gallop, L., 2007). A referendum gives the people the right for constitutional change and state referendums especially when it comes to social issues. In addition, the government should give the power to the people on the right to initiative because it will benefit our society. Initiatives, now permitted by 24 states, have been particularly prominent in the West, having been utilized more than 300 times as a part of Oregon, more than 250 times in California, and very nearly 200 times in Colorado. A wide range of issues have showed up on the vote in the different states, including regulation of professions and organizations, against smoking enactment, vehicle protection rates, premature birth rights,

Coined “mudrakers” by President Theodore Roosevelt, journalists wrote investigative articles exposing social, economic and political scandals. The writers detailed the many horrors of poverty, urban slums, dangerous factory conditions, and even child labor. No one was safe from the “mudrakers”, their articles took aim at the food and insurance industries, prostitution and political bribery and corruption. All which satisfied the American public’s appetite for scandal. Not unlike the sensationalism used by media today to help influence public

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, the print revolution gave power to hundreds of journalists across the nation. What was written carried more power than ever before, and writers, especially Upton Sinclair and Ida B. Wells, were using their skills to expose certain companies and social groups who had hidden atrocities. These writers held more power than what they thought as their works are still recognized today.

Jacob Riis deserves a place in history because of the many astonishing actions he did for

In the Progressive Era, influential journalists wanted to expose the government and big business of their flaws to American citizens with using factual and proven evidence against them. Muckrakers, who are journalists that seek out the truth of corruption among the government and business leaders, became well known due to how many people were amazed by the revealed injustices and dishonesty in the

Muckrakers were one of the most successful groups during the Progressive era, their main goal was to raise awareness of social issues apparent in American society. Thus, their main goal was to bring justice to groups such as child labor. Primarily, the reporters found child labor laws as one of their most significant ventures in bringing justice to the community. Following publicized stories of child endangerment, unfair wages, grueling hours, and even death Progressives sought to intervene and were highly successful in making headway on regulating child labor. During the 1916 labor case, federal law proved successful in the Keating-Owen state of affairs that gave

But Hofstadter argues this transition towards a more popular government was preceded by muckraker journalists who played a pivotal role in exposing and distributing news. Even though muckraking journalism existed prior to 1900, their influence was not as extensive as in the Progressive Era. Muckraking journalists were

According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary a muckraker is someone who “searches out and publicly exposes real or apparent misconduct of a prominent individual or business” (“Muckraker”). During the 1890s to the 1920s, muckrakers were a group of American journalists who exposed the corruption in society and informed the public about important social issues. The term muckraker originally came around when President Roosevelt gave a speech about reporters who exposed political and corporate corruption ("Who Are the Muckrakers?”). There have been so many muckrakers in American history whose works have been the cause of new laws and changes; some of the most important and famous of these muckrakers were Upton Sinclair, Samuel Hopkins Adams, and Jacob Riis.

Upon earning employment as a reporter in 1873, Jacob Riis intended to expose the deplorable living conditions within the slums of New York city as well as the police department shelters that he himself had to stay in. The living conditions in the slums were terrible for the tenants, as the tenements were dark with poor air quality, overcrowded, unsanitary, and filled with crime and illnesses. At the time, most of the residents in the slums were immigrants and there were no sanitary laws to regulate housing conditions. By contrast, Lewis Hine became a photographer for the National Child Labor Committee in 1908 to advocate for reform and child labor laws. During the time, society had become industrialized and children were expected to work to support their families. These child laborers were overworked, not payed well, and did not receive education because it was not mandated. Hine took photographs of child laborers and factory workers in order to communicate the exploitation that these workers were enduring

Muckrakers brought wider attention to a vast amount of issues through the publication of articles and books. They earned the name "muckrakers" because they were criticized as being obsessed with the seamier side of American life. They exposed urban political corruption and corporate wrongdoing. A few famous examples would be Lincoln Steffens's The Shame of the Cities (1904), Ida Tarbell's

Before World War I, the term "muckraker" was used to refer in a general sense to a writer who investigates and publishes truthful reports to perform an auditing or watchdog function. In contemporary use, the term describes either a journalist who writes in the adversarial or alternative tradition, or a non-journalist whose purpose in publication is to advocate reform and change.[3] Investigative journalists view the muckrakers as early influences and a continuation of watchdog journalism.

Her work for this magazine caught the attention of Samuel Sidney McClure, the founder of McClure’s Magazine, who was looking for writers for his new monthly publication. Tarbell was hired as an editor in 1894 and quickly became McClure’s Magazine‘s most successful writer. She became very successful due to her series on Abraham Lincoln which nearly doubled the number of magazines sold. Later on, a whole new generation of investigative journalists called “muckrakers”, given the name by President Theodore Roosevelt, began a campaign to expose corruption in businesses. Theodore Roosevelt gave these opinionated journalists the pessimistic label ‘muckrakers’ in a speech in 1906. Despite this negative label, Tarbell campaigned with the other journalists.

In your answer, explore the effects of language, imagery and verse form, and consider how this poem relates to other poems by Thomas that you have studied.