Question

Read the quotation from Lincoln Steffens’s The Shame of the Cities. "My purpose was . . . to see if the shameful facts, spread out in all their shame, would not burn through our civic shamelessness and set fire to American pride." According to Steffens, what was the purpose of muckraking journalism?

Answer 1

D). to encourage people to take action against widespread corruption.

Answer 2

The premise of muckraking journalism, originated in the United States in America in 1890, was to present corruption hardship amongst the ones in power. Similarly Steffen finds raising people's awareness of social problems casued by corrupt leadership as a purpose of this writing genre. In the same vein he advocates that uncovered facts about the power should not be ingored by society but provoke people to make a change.