EOTO PART II

 

I found all of the presentations to be incredibly enlightening and enjoying to watch. I found myself learning a lot about journalism heroes that I never would have otherwise known about. They were all such prominent figures in that they each paved the way for new journalists to come. They each set the bar high with their achievements and some even risked their lives in order to better the world around them through mass media storytelling. Nellie Bly is one of the most iconic journalistic risk-takers to date. She was a young woman that desperately wanted to get her foot in the door with a story that no one wanted to share. To exploit how mental patients were treated in an institution at the time, she faked symptoms of a mental illness and got herself checked into a mental hospital to explore undercover, the torture and mistreatment that the most vulnerable of society had to endure on a daily basis. Her work was revolutionary and helped shed light on a story many would benefit from in the later future. 

I also learned about other muckrakers at the time, like Jacob Riis - a social reformer whose life work was a culmination of pictures that depicted just how horrible normal life looked for a lot of people at the turn of the century. It depicted child labor, people living in tight quarters with little to no food, people with scraps of cloth for clothing, and sick children without access to proper healthcare and many of them even, without parents. Though his work may have seemed unpleasant, it showed people what they needed to see and his work offered an inside into a reality that many were oblivious to. 

Another person that I found to be very interesting was Ida Tarbell. The name rang a bell, so I definitely remember having heard about her at some point in time, but that was the extent of my knowledge. She was  an investigative reporter and lead muckraker who helped shed some light on and expose the Standard Oil Company for illegal practices that constantly put workers in danger and financial ruin. She also lead the Progressive reform movement and was a role-model in that she was not afraid to take on tycoons and people of importance to reveal the truth about how workers were treated and the shady dealings that took place away from the public eye. 

It is historical, progressive figures like these that both inspire and impress me the most. They represented the courage and grit necessary for telling stories that need to be told and the true talent it takes to tell those stories well and in a way that people will listen. I enjoyed learning about these key figures in journalistic history and will use these stories as inspiration to use my writing skills for the greater good and for stories that are bigger than myself and that will impact not just people now, but will also enlighten people for decades to come.