Muckraking

John K. Williams

Brogdon

September 27, 2011

Writing for Media

Muck Raking

— verb

1.      To seek out and expose scandal, especially concerning public figures

Muckraking is a term that means to dig up information that may expose scandals. You may not notice it, but it is in our daily lives. It is constantly on the news.

Here are a few muckraking examples that occurred.

1.      The US election. McCain has been engaging in a lot of muckraking while Obama said he won't engage in it. He wants to show higher integrity but the problem is that the population, especially the American population, respond more to negative information than positive.

2.      An example of a contemporary muckraker work is Ralph Nader's Unsafe at Any Speed (1965) and one of the more well-known from the early period is Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, (1906) which, respectively, led to reforms in automotive manufacturing and meat packing in the United States. Some of the most famous of the early muckrakers are Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, and Ray Stannard Baker.