Boost Your Word Power: 2026 Vocabulary Practice Test – Unlock Your Language Prowess!

Muckraking is a style of investigative journalism where reporters dig into unfair business practices, unsafe conditions, and corruption to reveal them to the public and push for reforms. During the Progressive Era, journalists like Ida Tarbell, who exposed the monopolistic tactics of Standard Oil; Upton Sinclair, whose The Jungle highlighted unsanitary meatpacking and led to food-safety laws; and Lincoln Steffens, who revealed city government corruption, used meticulous reporting to galvanize public opinion and spur legislative change. This approach is all about uncovering abuses to drive reform, unlike the NAACP, which is a civil rights organization; Nationalism, an ideology; or Mobilization, a general process of rallying people, none of which capture the journalism-driven push for change described here.