Natasha Oslinger
Ms. Hale / Mr. Baldauf
American Studies
18 September 2015
Journalism and Goliath
Journalism was the catalyst that launched the health and medical community of the 20th century into advancement. Before the Progressive Era, issues including unsanitary living conditions, hazardous working facilities, lack of medical attention, and unsanitary food plagued the nation. Journalists such as Samuel Adams and Upton Sinclair used their medium to help bring these issues to light and inform the public on the corporations that were profiting off of the people's suffering. The work of these journalists eventually led to the Pure Food and Drug Act, an act that makes dangerous material illegal to sell to the public. Because of the work of these journalists, a direct change was made in the way the public lives their everyday lives. Investigative journalism has been instrumental in the improvement of modern medicine and health laws since the Progressive Era.
During the Progressive Era, people frequently fell ill to deadly sicknesses that were commonly life threatening. These illnesses were brought on by anything ranging from dangerous and unsanitary work and home life, to simply not having access to proper medical attention (Zainaldin). This resulted in people falling victim to malaria, tuberculosis, small pox, typhoid fever, and many other devastating diseases, which is overarchingly making their average life span around only 50 years (Zainaldin). In order to help the public and solve the problems that were plaguing the community, access to health care, proper education on the subject, information on medical science, and support from the government was necessary. But, the government could not help if the people did not demand it, and the people could not demand if they did not know that what they were going through needed be changed. Someone had to inform the public and bring the change they not only needed, but deserved. Who better to do it than journalists (Zainaldin)?
Investigative journalists seek the truth, and try to spread that truth though the medium they can best utilize: their writing. A journalist by the name of Samuel H. Adams cared for the people in his community, he was a determined muckraker who wanted to impact the way medicine was manufactured. Adams became a public health issues journalist for the magazine Collier's Weekly, and wrote 11 articles for a magazine titled “The Great American Fraud” (Encyclopædia Britannica). These articles revealed the corrupt patent medicine business and showed the public how the medicine they were being sold was nothing more than toxic pain-relieving elixirs:
Gullible America will spend this year some seventy-five millions of dollars in the purchase of patent medicines. In consideration of this sum it will swallow huge quantities of alcohol...opiates and narcotics… and drugs...; and, in excess of all other ingredients, undiluted fraud. (Samuel Hopkins Adams)
He brought the lies manufacturers told to the public to light, and showed how these companies were harming the people they were supposed to be helping (Fee).
Another journalist who tried to make a change in medicine and health during the Progressive Era was Upton Sinclair (Boundless). Sinclair spent 7 weeks investigating, then writing a novel about the disgusting and hazardous issues troubling the meat packing industry. A boom in the industrial meat industry called for a higher demand of factory workers, and as the companies grew, the working conditions became worse (Conditions in Meatpacking Plants). In his book The Jungle, Sinclair exposed the disgusting conditions troubling meat packing plants. In these factories, there would be absolutely no rearguards to the clean and responsible handling of the meat. It would be stored in stacks in rooms full of rats, these rat would then be poisoned by the workers and thrown, bodies, feces, poison, and all, into the meat hoppers. (Sinclair) Sinclair's work caused disgust and panic from the public, and was highly contributory to the creation of the Pure Food and Drug Act.
The insights brought to light through journalists such as Samuel Adams and Upton Sinclair resulted in the formation of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. This law made it illegal to sell or manufacture food that has been adulterated/made hazardous to the consumer (Glass). The act states than no food that has been diluted or substituted without labeling, that has been colored, made to hide damage, is poisonous, is a product of unhealthy livestock, has been blended, or has had any essential part removed can not be sold or marketed to the public (Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906). This act was very important to the safety of the public, and without investigative journalism bringing up and exposing the scandals of the medical/health world, it would not be in place. Without acts like this, hazardous material marketed as medicine or food would still be being sold to the public, and acts like this can’t be formed without journalists shedding light on dangerous situations. Because of the issues brought to light by journalism, an act such as this has potentially saved the lives of countless people (Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906).
Investigative journalism was, and is today, an asset to the community. Journalism informs the consumer, spreads information, and can help make a change in legislation. Without the work of Samuel Adams, people today might still be dying because of dangerous chemical and alcohol combinations being marketed as medicine. He has made a direct change in the medical community though journalism. Upton Sinclair, another investigative journalist, wrote a book that both disgusted and informed the nation on the dangerously unsanitary conditions of meat packing facilities. Sinclair’s work brought light to many issues greedy corporations were trying to cover, and he used journalism to make a change and pass legislation that would keep the public safe. The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was passed to help regulate what was being put into the products sold to the consumer. It was a long awaited triumph that might never have come around if not for investigative journalism. Caring about the truth has proven effective in making a change, and without journalism, the change we live today might only be a promise made by the people we need journalism to defeat.
Ms. Hale / Mr. Baldauf
American Studies
18 September 2015
Journalism and Goliath
Journalism was the catalyst that launched the health and medical community of the 20th century into advancement. Before the Progressive Era, issues including unsanitary living conditions, hazardous working facilities, lack of medical attention, and unsanitary food plagued the nation. Journalists such as Samuel Adams and Upton Sinclair used their medium to help bring these issues to light and inform the public on the corporations that were profiting off of the people's suffering. The work of these journalists eventually led to the Pure Food and Drug Act, an act that makes dangerous material illegal to sell to the public. Because of the work of these journalists, a direct change was made in the way the public lives their everyday lives. Investigative journalism has been instrumental in the improvement of modern medicine and health laws since the Progressive Era.
During the Progressive Era, people frequently fell ill to deadly sicknesses that were commonly life threatening. These illnesses were brought on by anything ranging from dangerous and unsanitary work and home life, to simply not having access to proper medical attention (Zainaldin). This resulted in people falling victim to malaria, tuberculosis, small pox, typhoid fever, and many other devastating diseases, which is overarchingly making their average life span around only 50 years (Zainaldin). In order to help the public and solve the problems that were plaguing the community, access to health care, proper education on the subject, information on medical science, and support from the government was necessary. But, the government could not help if the people did not demand it, and the people could not demand if they did not know that what they were going through needed be changed. Someone had to inform the public and bring the change they not only needed, but deserved. Who better to do it than journalists (Zainaldin)?
Investigative journalists seek the truth, and try to spread that truth though the medium they can best utilize: their writing. A journalist by the name of Samuel H. Adams cared for the people in his community, he was a determined muckraker who wanted to impact the way medicine was manufactured. Adams became a public health issues journalist for the magazine Collier's Weekly, and wrote 11 articles for a magazine titled “The Great American Fraud” (Encyclopædia Britannica). These articles revealed the corrupt patent medicine business and showed the public how the medicine they were being sold was nothing more than toxic pain-relieving elixirs:
Gullible America will spend this year some seventy-five millions of dollars in the purchase of patent medicines. In consideration of this sum it will swallow huge quantities of alcohol...opiates and narcotics… and drugs...; and, in excess of all other ingredients, undiluted fraud. (Samuel Hopkins Adams)
He brought the lies manufacturers told to the public to light, and showed how these companies were harming the people they were supposed to be helping (Fee).
Another journalist who tried to make a change in medicine and health during the Progressive Era was Upton Sinclair (Boundless). Sinclair spent 7 weeks investigating, then writing a novel about the disgusting and hazardous issues troubling the meat packing industry. A boom in the industrial meat industry called for a higher demand of factory workers, and as the companies grew, the working conditions became worse (Conditions in Meatpacking Plants). In his book The Jungle, Sinclair exposed the disgusting conditions troubling meat packing plants. In these factories, there would be absolutely no rearguards to the clean and responsible handling of the meat. It would be stored in stacks in rooms full of rats, these rat would then be poisoned by the workers and thrown, bodies, feces, poison, and all, into the meat hoppers. (Sinclair) Sinclair's work caused disgust and panic from the public, and was highly contributory to the creation of the Pure Food and Drug Act.
The insights brought to light through journalists such as Samuel Adams and Upton Sinclair resulted in the formation of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. This law made it illegal to sell or manufacture food that has been adulterated/made hazardous to the consumer (Glass). The act states than no food that has been diluted or substituted without labeling, that has been colored, made to hide damage, is poisonous, is a product of unhealthy livestock, has been blended, or has had any essential part removed can not be sold or marketed to the public (Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906). This act was very important to the safety of the public, and without investigative journalism bringing up and exposing the scandals of the medical/health world, it would not be in place. Without acts like this, hazardous material marketed as medicine or food would still be being sold to the public, and acts like this can’t be formed without journalists shedding light on dangerous situations. Because of the issues brought to light by journalism, an act such as this has potentially saved the lives of countless people (Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906).
Investigative journalism was, and is today, an asset to the community. Journalism informs the consumer, spreads information, and can help make a change in legislation. Without the work of Samuel Adams, people today might still be dying because of dangerous chemical and alcohol combinations being marketed as medicine. He has made a direct change in the medical community though journalism. Upton Sinclair, another investigative journalist, wrote a book that both disgusted and informed the nation on the dangerously unsanitary conditions of meat packing facilities. Sinclair’s work brought light to many issues greedy corporations were trying to cover, and he used journalism to make a change and pass legislation that would keep the public safe. The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was passed to help regulate what was being put into the products sold to the consumer. It was a long awaited triumph that might never have come around if not for investigative journalism. Caring about the truth has proven effective in making a change, and without journalism, the change we live today might only be a promise made by the people we need journalism to defeat.