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Taking On the

Giants:
Muckraking in
the Magazines
At the start of 20th century,
corruption and greed in
business and politics were
creating some of the worst
abuses this country had
ever seen.
Industrial giants, the so
called Robber Barons,
amassed fortunes through
mammoth monopolies
controlling mining,
manufacturing, banking,
railroads, food packing,
and insurance.

Taking On
the Giants:
Muckraking
in the
Magazines
Local
politicians and
police were in the pay
of the industries. The
federal government
was also hamstrung.

Echoing the role of


books in social change,
magazines, particularly
popular mass market
magazines, took
leadership in
challenging these
powerful interests and
advocating reform.

Historian Louis Filler (1968) called the

crusading magazine articles of writers such as


Ida Tarbell, Upton Sinclair, Lincoln Steffens,
Jack London, and others "literary rather than
yellow"(p.31).
Articles and series such as Steffen's "The
Shame of the Cities". Tarbell's "The History of
the Standard Oil Company," Sinclair's novel
The Jungle (on unclean food and abuse of
workers). and Edwin Markham's "The Hoe-Man
in the Making" (on unsafe and humane child
labor practices) galvanized the nation.

Taking On the Giants: Muckraking


in the Magazines
Cosmopolitan in March 1906 changed the way U.S.
senators were electer, ensuring passage of reform
legislation. The Treason of the Senate accused.
President Teddy Roosevelt was compelled to respond to
the charges. In a speech delivered on march 17.
the man mendacious attack upon men in public life and
upon men engaged in public work (filler,1968,p.252).
Thus did the crusading writers and journalists come to be
known as muckrakers.
They were influential in passage of the Pure Food and
Drug Act and the Hepburn Railroad Bill in 1906, the
federal Reserve Bill in 1913, the Clayton Anti-Trust Act in
1914,and numerous child labor laws.

Several reasons for this


phenomenal growth,
Books, widespread
literacy.
The postal Act of 1879,
which permitted mailing
magazines at cheap
second-class postage
rates.
The spread of the railroad,
which carried people and
publications westward
from the East Coast.

the reduction in cost.


magazines sold for 35
cents--a lot of money for the
time--they were read largely
by upper class.
a circulation war erupted
between giants McClure's,
Munsey's Magazine, and The
Saturday Evening Post. as
well as Ladies Home Journal,
McCall's Woman's Home
Companion, Collier's, and
Cosmopolitan were selling
for as little as 10 and 15
cents.

1870s price war was made


possible by new found
ability of magazines to
attract growing amounts
of advertising.
social and demographic
changes in the post-Civil
War era--urbanization
industrialization, the
spread of roads and
railroads, and
development of consumer
brands and brand names
produced an explosion in
the number of advertising
agencies.

Magazines were the


perfect outlet because
they were read by a
large, national
audience.
fifth reason for the
enormous growth in
the number of
magazines was.
Magazines were truly
America's first national
mass medium, and like
books they served as
an important force in
social change.

Their targets were the powerful.


Their beneficiaries were the poor.
The mass circulation magazine
grew with the nation. there were
general interest magazines such
as The Saturday Evening Post,
women's magazines such as
Good Houskeeping, pictorial
magazines such as Life and Look,
and digests such as Reader's
Digest, which was the first
published in 1922 and offered
condensed and tightly edited
articles for people on the go in
the Roaring Twenties.
They were mass market, mass
circulation publications, both
national and affordable.

Magazines helped unify the


nation. They were the
television of their time. the
primary source for
nationally distributed news,
and the preeminent
provider of visual, or photo,
journalism.
1900 and 1945, the number
of families who subcribed
to one or more magazines
grew from 200,ooo to more
than 32 million. New and
important magazines
continued to appear
throughout these decades.

THE ERA OF
SPECIALIZATION
1956 Collier's declared bankruptcy and became

the first mass circulation magazine to cease


publication. Profound alterations in the nation's
culture and, in particular, the advent of
televesion- changed the relationship between
magazines and their audience.
Magazines did not have moving pictures or
visual and oral storytelling. Nor could magazines
match television's timeliness. Magazines were
weekly, whereas television was continuous.
everthing on television was of the interest to
viewers. as result, magazines began to lose
advertisers to television.

THE ERA OF
The audience changed as well. as we've seen.
SPECIALIZATION
World War II changed the nature of american life.
World War II had further urbanized and

industrialized America, people--including millions


of women who had entered the workforce--had
more leisure and more money to spend. They coul
spend both on a wider array of personal interests
and on magazines that catered to those interests.
Look (closed in 1971) and Life (closed in 1972),
there were now Flyfishing, Surfing, Ski, and
Easyrider.
the industry had hit on the secret of success:
specialization and a lifestyle.

Magazines and Their


Audiences
Magazine industry research indicates that

among people with at least some college, 94%


read at least one magazine and average more
than 11 different issues a month. Nearly the
same figures apply for households with annual
incomes of over $40,000 and for people in
professional and manegerial careers, regardless
of educational attainment.
Typical magazine reader is at least a high
school graduate, married, own his or her own
house, is employed full-time, and has annual
household income of just under $40,000.

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